Foreign direct investment in the United States: detail for historical-cost position and balance of payment flows, 1992

Survey of Current Business, July, 1993

THE FOLLOWING SET of tables presents country-by-industry estimates and estimates by detailed account for foreign direct investment in the United States (FDIUS). It covers the FDIUS position on a historical-cost basis and the related capital and income flows and presents estimates of the position, capital flows, and income for all countries from which there was investment and for all industries in which investment was made.

The estimates in tables 3-18 differ in several respects from those for comparable items included in the U.S. international transactions accounts and in the international investment position of the United States.(1) Whereas the estimates in tables 3-18 are on a historical-cost basis--the only basis on which detailed estimates by country, by industry, and by account are available-the estimates in the U.S. international transactions accounts are on a current-cost basis, and those in the international investment position are on both a current-cost and a market-value basis. Additionally, the estimates of direct investment current-account items (income and services payments) in tables 3-18, unlike those in the U.S. international transactions accounts, are net (after deduction) of U.S. and foreign withholding taxes; estimates gross of withholding taxes are not available by country or by industry. Table 1 shows the position and rates of return for FDIUS on all three valuation bases (historical cost, current cost, and market value), and table 2 reconciles the estimates presented in tables 3-18 with those included in the U.S. international transactions accounts.

[TABULAR DATA 1 and 2 OMITTED]

The estimates of capital flows shown here incorporate a new methodology, introduced in June 1993, for estimating increases and decreases in equity capital of affiliates that are exempt from BEA'S quarterly surveys of direct investment because of their size.(2) The new methodology, which affects estimates for 1990 forward, parallels and extends the methodology introduced in June 1992 to account for equity capital increases and decreases for delinquent affiliates, that is, for affiliates that should have been reported in the quarterly surveys but were not. Incorporation of estimates for both delinquent and exempt affiliates corrects for a systematic downward bias in the reported data.

The survey from which the estimates were derived was conducted by Gregory G. Fouch under the supervision of James L. Bomkamp. Peter J. Fox, Nancy F. Halvorson, Tracy K. Leigh, Beverly E. Paimer, and Sabiha M. Sierra assisted with the survey and with the preparation of the estimates. D. Richard Mauery programmed the tables. (1.) See "U.S. International Transactions, First Quarter 1993" and "The International Investment Position of the United States in 1992," Survey of Current Business 73 (June 1993). (2.) "See U.S. International Transactions, Revised Fstimates for 1983--92," Survey 73 (June 1993): 61.