The difference between the amount U.S. residents hold in foreign financial assets and the amount of foreign liabilities they have increased in the second quarter of 2021, with liabilities growing more than assets, The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported.
The statistic is called the net international investment position (IIP), the agency said.
It was negative $15.42 trillion at the end of the second quarter compared to negative $14.30 trillion at the end of the first quarter.
Factors such as U.S. stock prices that increased more than foreign stock prices were factors in the negative $1.12 trillion change in the net investment position, the bureau said.
"The global pandemic and the economic recovery continued to impact the IIP in the second quarter of 2021," the bureau said. "The economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be quantified in the IIP statistics because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified."
In the second quarter, U.S.-owned foreign financial assets increased by $1.36 trillion, to a total of $34.20 trillion "mostly reflecting increases in portfolio investment and direct investment assets," the bureau said.
U.S. liabilities increased more than assets. They went up by $2.48 trillion, to a total of $49.62 trillion by the end of second quarter, mostly reflecting increases in portfolio investment and direct investment liabilities," the bureau said.
"Portfolio investment liabilities increased by $1.41 trillion, to $26.59 trillion, and direct investment liabilities increased by $927.2 billion, to $13.49 trillion, driven mainly by increases in U.S. stock prices that raised the value of these liabilities," the bureau said.