Improving the Timeliness of BEA's Activities of Multinational Enterprises Statistics

By Kirsten Brew and Larkin Terrie  | October 14, 2026

Overview of AMNE data

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) statistics on the activities of multinational enterprises (AMNE) provide a comprehensive and integrated data set for analyzing multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their effects on both home and host country economies. These annual statistics offer an additional perspective on the impact of foreign direct investment beyond what is presented in the International Transactions Accounts (ITAs) and the International Investment Position (IIP) Accounts. They provide insights into the financial structure and operations of MNEs with a U.S. presence, including U.S. parent companies with affiliates abroad (outward direct investment), and foreign parent companies with affiliates in the United States (inward direct investment). The data include value added, sales, employment, trade, research and development (R&D) expenditures, and other measures by country and by industry.

Why are we focused on timeliness?

BEA's mission is to promote a better understanding of the U.S. economy by providing the most timely, relevant, and accurate economic accounts data in an objective and cost-effective manner. Not surprisingly, there has been a persistent demand from businesses, policymakers, and the public for more timely, high-quality data to inform decisions in today's interconnected global economy. Improving the timeliness of statistical releases has long been a priority for BEA, and BEA has recently put even more emphasis on accelerating the release of its statistical products. In 2026, these efforts have included producing accelerated estimates for monthly personal income and outlays, quarterly IIP statistics, and new foreign direct investment in the United States data, among other initiatives.

Historically, preliminary statistics on the activities of MNEs have been released each August or November of the second year after the reference year and are revised once the following August or November. In practice, this means preliminary data become available 18 to 23 months after the end of the reference year and revised data after 30 to 35 months. The revised estimates include additional data from survey submissions BEA received after the preliminary release. The lag is a product of both the large number of survey responses that must be collected and processed and the significant level of detail included in the published statistics.

BEA's AMNE statistics rely almost entirely on data collected through BEA's mandatory annual and benchmark direct investment surveys. Benchmark surveys, which are conducted once every 5 years, are censuses of all U.S. MNEs and all U.S. affiliates of foreign MNEs. Annual surveys conducted between benchmark years are size-cutoff sample surveys. Outward AMNE statistics are based on the Annual Survey of U.S. Direct Investment Abroad (BE–11) and the Benchmark Survey of U.S. Direct Investment Abroad (BE–10). Inward AMNE statistics are based on the Annual Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States (BE–15) and the Benchmark Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States (BE–12). Together, these surveys cover approximately 5,800 in-scope annual U.S. affiliate reporters, 25,000 annual U.S. parent and foreign affiliate reporters, 94,000 benchmark U.S. affiliate reporters, and over 100,000 benchmark U.S. parent and foreign affiliate reporters.

Roadmap to timeliness

BEA previously produced advance summary estimates of the employment, capital expenditures, and sales of U.S. multinational companies as well as for foreign multinational companies operating in the United States. The most recent set was released for the 2011 reference year. Due to the limited usefulness of these data, largely because they did not include any country- or industry-level detail, the production of these advance estimates was discontinued. In contrast to this earlier effort to improve timeliness, the current approach to accelerating publication will involve maintaining the uniformity of published content such that the most relevant and detailed data (at the country, industry, and—where applicable—state levels) are provided in both the preliminary and revised releases.

Key steps in BEA's path to improving timeliness have been the rigorous assessment of how acceleration might affect data quality and the adoption of significant process improvements that reduce the time required to transform received survey data into high-quality published statistics.

Data quality assessment. Accelerating the AMNE release schedule reduces the amount of time available for BEA to collect and review survey forms, which could negatively affect the quality of published data. To better understand the possible tradeoffs between acceleration and data quality, BEA examined how data quality in several historical years would have been different had an accelerated publication schedule been in place. Using BEA's survey-processing records, which include information on the timing of survey data receipt and review, hypothetical versions of the published AMNE statistics for each year under analysis were constructed using only survey data available at earlier (i.e., accelerated) cutoff dates. For each year of data under analysis, these hypothetical estimates were compared with actual published results to assess the potential effects of different acceleration schedules on data quality. Based on this analysis, BEA was able to identify a possible window for accelerated publication that will maintain the overall quality of published AMNE statistics while still significantly improving the timeliness of these statistics.

Maintaining data quality standards through survey-processing improvement. To ensure a high level of data quality is maintained despite the shorter window for receiving and processing survey forms, BEA has introduced three key types of innovations involving its information technology systems and its procedures for reviewing and processing survey forms.

First, through increased use of artificial intelligence and other analytical tools, key steps in the survey-processing workflow have been automated. By reducing the time program staff must spend on repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as preparing documentation and responding to user questions about survey instructions, this automation allows BEA to process more survey forms in a given timeframe.

Second, BEA's electronic-filing platform is being modernized to enhance the respondent experience, encourage more timely filing, and reduce the number of paper forms that must be processed.

Third, procedures have been adopted to more effectively and quickly identify which received forms are of the highest priority for review and processing. The highest priority forms are generally those that report large values, or large changes in value, across a variety of different published indicators, including, for example, assets, R&D expenditures, and number of employees. These new procedures ensure high-priority forms are incorporated in a timely manner into published AMNE statistics.

Data quality assessments will be conducted on an ongoing basis and will have two main dimensions. First, as indicated above, efforts will focus on ensuring the proportion of company-level data that comes from reported forms remains high. Second, a key goal will be to keep revision magnitudes broadly consistent with the average levels observed prior to adopting the accelerated release schedule.

What will the new release schedule be?

Prior to accelerating the release schedule, preliminary AMNE statistics were released in August or November of the second year after the survey reference year and revised once the following August or November. The August release supports annual publications, while the November release has been reserved for surveys leading into benchmark publications. Benchmark years require additional preparation and carry a heavier workload due to increased communication with respondents, a larger number of forms collected, and the additional level of detail collected on those forms.

Beginning in 2027, the standard annual publication date will shift from August to no later than April. August will then be designated for benchmark publications, replacing the previous November publication schedule. The 2025 preliminary and 2024 revised inward AMNE statistics will be released no later than April. The 2025 preliminary and 2024 revised outward AMNE statistics will be published in August instead of November because 2024 is a benchmark collection year.

Conclusion and requests for feedback

Our products, methods, and target publication dates will continue to evolve as we implement additional process improvements and refine the content of our survey forms. As we make these changes, it is essential our data users remain at the center of the process, helping to inform and shape both the surveys and the published statistics. While we will continue to solicit formal comments through the Federal Register, we also welcome more direct, informal feedback. This input will help us better understand who our users are, how you use the data, what you value most, and what you would like to see included in the future. In particular, we invite your feedback on the following:

• Which BEA AMNE data do you use most and for what purposes?
• How could changes to the AMNE survey data collected or published provide more value to you?
• What limitations or gaps do you see in the statistics? How do you address them? If you purchase supplemental data from a private vendor, which vendor do you use?

Please submit feedback by emailing InternationalAccount@bea.gov and including “SCB Feedback – AMNE Data” in the subject line.