Director's Message

In this issue, we're pleased to provide our annual article on U.S. international services, which includes detailed annual statistics on trade in services and services delivered via affiliates of multinational enterprises. This year, we introduced a new presentation in the tables that accompany the article. It offers a longer time span of the accounts and conforms to the revised format used in BEA's international services interactive tables, which were introduced in 2014. The data also include expanded country-level and industry-level detail for services supplied through affiliates.

Other articles discuss international transactions and the international investment position for the second quarter of 2015.

We're pleased to highlight our gross domestic product (GDP) by metropolitan area statistics in this issue, which now include statistics for 2014. GDP growth was widespread across metropolitan areas last year, increasing in 282 of the nation's 381 metropolitan areas. In addition, our Regional Quarterly Report discusses state personal income trends for the second quarter. For the first time, the article presents data on population growth. 

And as usual in October, we take a look at the third estimates of the GDP accounts for the second quarter. 

Brian C. Moyer Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis