Net international investment position

The net international investment position (NIIP) is the difference between the external financial assets and liabilities of a country. External debt of a country includes government debt and private debt. External assets publicly and privately held by a country's legal residents are also taken into account when calculating NIIP. Commodities and currencies tend to follow a cyclical pattern of significant valuation changes, which is also reflected in NIIP.

The international investment position (IIP) of a country is a financial statement of the value and composition of its external financial assets and liabilities. A positive NIIP value indicates that a nation is a creditor nation, while a negative value indicates that it is a debtor nation.

In 1980, the United States net international-creditor position was bigger than the total net creditor-positions of all the other countries in the world. Only six years later, in 1986, when the nation’s international investment position was at a year-end negative $107.4 billion, the U.S. became a net-debtor nation for the first time since 1914, when its nominal debt had reached $2 billion. By 1990, the U.S. was the world's largest debtor. By the end of 2020, the country’s net international-investment position was a negative $14 trillion, an amount representing how much more the U.S. owed to the rest of the world than the rest of the world owed to the U.S. At the end of 2022, it stood at a negative $16 trillion. By 2026 it has risen to $26 trillion.

List of countries and regions by net international investment position (NIIP)

Creditor nations

This is a list of the top creditor nations of the world sorted by their net international investment positions (NIIPs) per capita. A creditor nation is a sovereign state that has a positive NIIP. The table uses the latest available data, mostly from websites approved by the International Monetary Fund, and includes Macau and Hong Kong because of their special economic statuses. Population figures may list citizens only or total population, therefore ranking and figures may vary. The 6 Gulf Cooperation Council countries are widely considered to be creditor nations (and perhaps some of the largest ones), but because of Islamic sensitivities about credit and debt, they seldom report their external assets and liabilities.

Debtor nations

This is a list of debtor nations of the world sorted by their net international investment positions (NIIPs) per capita. A debtor nation is a sovereign state that has a negative NIIP, i.e. a country that has net external liabilities, not net external assets. The table uses data from respective national government statistical agencies, Eurostat, or IMF. Though many do, a large portion of nations do not report data to the IMF. Parallel reports from government or international agencies may report vastly different data.

See also

• Net foreign assets
• List of countries by external debt
• List of countries by government debt

External links

• Bureau of Economic Analysis [permanent dead link]
• Bank of Japan 2012-11-18 at the Wayback Machine (Retrieved on June 30, 2011)
• Deutsche Bundesbank (German Central Bank)
• Graph 1.3.2., International investment position since 1980 in major economic units.

Statistics

• International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• UK National Statistics 2010-02-15 at the Wayback Machine
• Saint-Petersburg (Russia) statistic