This figure plots the net amount of quarterly dividends from abroad at a quarterly frequency, in billions of U.S. dollars. The y-axis (measuring these dividends in billions of dollars) ranges from -20 to +120 . The x-axis measures time at a quarterly frequency, beginning in 1989Q1 and ending in 2007Q4. The figure begins at a value of around 10 and is relatively flat with small wiggles up and down through the 1990s. The very slight upward trend implies the series is averaging around 15-19 billion U.S. dollars in the early 2000s, with some slight movements up and down. The series jumps up from roughly 20 in Q4-2004 to 110 in Q1-2005, and then jumps back down to about 30 in Q2-2005 . The series falls to nearly zero in Q4-2005 and then jumps back to the 20-30 billion U.S. dollar range for the remaining period.