This article continues the annual series of estimates, in sterling terms, of the United Kingdom's external assets and liabilities, and gives provisional figures for the end of 1977. These show that the net liability position widened somewhat during last year.
The compilation and presentation of the estimates, which are set out in detail in Table F, follow the pattern of last year's article. As in previous articles, it is as well to emphasise the inevitable limitations of an inventory of this nature: for a start there are gaps in the data - for example, no estimates exist for UK-owned property abroad or for foreign-owned property in this country; more generally, difficulties in valuing investments and problems of identification may entail considerable margins of error, and some of the estimates are no more than broad indications of magnitude. In particular, the estimates for both inward and outward private investment are especially liable to revision.
An inventory of United Kingdom external assets and liabilities end-1977