Did the U.S. current account deficit grow or shrink last year? What products make up the largest share of U.S. goods exports? What types of assets make up the largest portion of U.S. financial investments abroad? In which state do U.S. affiliates of foreign multinational enterprises employ the most people?
The answers to these questions and many others can be found in the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’ International Economic Accounts. The International Economic Accounts are comprised of three core accounts — the International Transactions Accounts, the International Investment Position Accounts, and the statistics on the activities of multinational enterprises — plus four sets of related statistics. The related sets are monthly trade in goods and services; international services; direct investment by country and industry; and new foreign direct investment in the United States.
For an introduction to these statistics, see “A Primer on the U.S. International Economic Accounts” in the July 2021 issue of the Survey of Current Business. For detailed information on how the statistics are compiled, see the newly updated and expanded edition of U.S. International Economic Accounts: Concepts and Methods.
Detailed International Economic Accounts statistics are available via interactive tables on the BEA website, preformatted tables on our international statistics webpages, and BEA’s API, or application programming interface.