(See figure 1.) Last year, for example, U.S. liabilities to foreigners totaled more than $ trillion, exceeding 140 percent of U.S. GDP. At the same time, U.S. claims on foreigners totaled $ trillion, roughly 130 percent of U.S. GDP. Even the net liability position of the United States is sizeable, $ trillion or more than 17 percent of GDP.
As I mentioned before, there are signs of substantial improvement both in financial markets and in the real economy. These suggest that the Eurosystem extraordinary liquidity measures are not all needed to the same extent as in the past. However, unwinding of enhanced credit support must be both timely and gradual.