U.S. International Transactions for the Third Quarter of 2011

摘要

THE U.S. CURRENT-ACCOUNT deficit - a net measure of transactions between the United States and the rest of the world in goods, services, income, and unilateral current transfers - decreased to $110.3 billion (preliminary) in the third quarter of 2011 from $124.7 billion (revised) in the second quarter (see pages 12-15). The deficit decreased to 2.9 percent of current-dollar gross domestic product (GDP) - down from 3.3 percent in the second quarter - after six straight quarters at 3.0 percent or higher. Most of the decrease reflected a drop in the deficit on goods; smaller contributions came from a decrease in net unilateral current transfers and increases in the surpluses on services and on income. In the financial account, net financial inflows to the United States increased to $183.9 billion in the third quarter from $35.4 billion in the second quarter (see pages 16-17). Net financial flows reflect combined transactions in U.S.-owned assets abroad, foreign-owned assets in the United States, and financial derivatives. The preliminary statistics for the third quarter exclude transactions in financial derivatives because the data are not available. The third-quarter increase in net inflows reflects a speedup in the growth of foreign-owned assets in the United States that more than offset a shift in U.S.-owned assets abroad from a decrease to an increase.