The data series are based on submissions of monthly TIC Form
S, "Purchases and Sales of Long-Term Securities by Foreigners."
These reports are mandatory and are filed by banks, securities
dealers, investors, and other entities in the U.S. who deal
directly with foreign residents in purchases and sales of
long-term securities (equities and debt issues with an original
maturity of more than one year) issued by U.S. or foreign-based
firms. Typically, the data series are revised for up to 24 months after
the initial "as of" reporting date. The data are released to the
public with a lag of about 1½ months.
The data reflect only those transactions
between U.S. residents and counterparties
located outside the United States. The data
cover transactions in six classifications of
securities: There are four domestic types of
securities, which include U.S. Treasury bonds
and notes, bonds of U.S. government
corporations and federally-sponsored
agencies, U.S. corporate and other bonds, and
U.S. corporate and other stocks; and two
foreign types of securities, namely foreign
bonds and foreign stocks.
The securities data are collected and
presented from the perspective of the foreign
parties to the transactions. By definition,
"gross purchases by foreigners" are gross
sales by U.S. residents. Similarly, "gross
sales by foreigners" are gross purchases by
U.S. residents. As an example, to derive net
foreign purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds and
notes vis-a-vis a particular country or
geographical area, take the difference
between the two columns labeled "gross
purchases by foreigners of U.S. Treasury
bonds and notes" and "gross sales by
foreigners of U.S. Treasury bonds and notes."
As another example, to derive net U.S.
purchases of foreign equities, you would take
the difference between "gross purchases by
foreigners of foreign stocks" and "gross
sales by foreigners of foreign stocks." In
each example, a
positive difference indicates net foreign
purchases from U.S. residents (U.S.
capital inflow); a
negative difference indicates net foreign
sales to U.S. residents (U.S. capital
outflow).
Please note that the geographical
breakdown of Form S securities transactions
indicates country of location of the foreign
buyers and sellers who deal DIRECTLY with
entities resident in the U.S. (i.e.,
reporting institutions). The data do not
necessarily indicate the country of
beneficial owner or issuer, nor the currency
of denomination of securities. For instance,
a U.S. purchaser's order for Japanese
securities may be placed directly with an
intermediary in London. In this instance, the
transaction for Form S reporting purposes
would be recorded opposite the U.K. and not
opposite Japan. Similarly, purchases
and sales of U.S. securities for the account
of an Italian resident may be placed, for
example, in the Swiss market. In such an
arrangement, the trades would be reported
opposite Switzerland
and not opposite Italy.
The data on U.S. securities transactions
are available on this site as separate time
series for each country line or geographical
region as shown in Table CM-V-4 of the
Treasury Bulletin. The data for any
single country can be downloaded in one of
three ways: as part of the global file (data,
by country, for all available countries); as
part of one of four regional files (data, by
country, for all countries in specified
region); or individually.
In each data file, whether the global, a
regional, or a country file, individual
countries are identified by a distinct
five-digit, numerical "country code" found in
the first column of each file. The country
code is also used in the filename for
individual country files. (For example, the
country code assigned to the United Kingdom
is 13005; its individual filename is
"s1-13005.txt".) The
provides a cross
reference of country lines and their
corresponding codes. Data for countries that
are not listed separately are incorporated
under the "other" regional lines for the
region in which the country belongs. For
example, reportable transactions vis-a-vis
Iceland, if any, would be included under
"Other Europe," country code 18007.