Many U.S. cards charge transaction fees of as much as 3% for foreign purchases.
Foreign purchases of U.S. treasury bonds in recent years have helped keep American interest rates low.
His response has been to triple a tax on foreign purchases of Brazilian bonds.
American buyers are a much smaller group, comparatively, buying only 169 homes in 2012 to make up 2.4% of all foreign purchases.
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On the real-estate front, meanwhile, lawmakers have tried to deal with sky-high prices by introducing a 15 percent stamp duty on foreign purchases of private residential homes.
Brazil now imposes a tax of 6% on foreign purchases of its bonds, as well as a smaller tax on bets against the dollar on the futures market.
In an increasingly globalized market, mergers and acquisitions with an international component are routine, and most foreign purchases of American business assets will raise no national security issues.
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The United States refuses to address the regulations of its 50 states, which have been known on occasion to discourage foreign purchases of insurance companies, or to end federal subsidies.
Whichever numbers you choose, central banks' increases in dollar reserves have been large compared with overall foreign purchases of American bonds, and huge compared with the size of the current-account deficit.
Research by Kristin Forbes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Marcel Fratzscher, Thomas Kostka and Roland Straub of the European Central Bank has assessed the impact of Brazilian taxes on foreign purchases of fixed-income assets between 2006 and 2011.
Moreover, media reports cited declining positions of Chinese banks for foreign exchange purchases, an indicator of capital outflows.
Purchases of foreign oil exceeded records, and copper imports were high as well.
But this kind of thing has too many people expecting solar panels and wind turbines to prevent oil spills and excessive purchases of foreign oil.
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However, this is a net figure: the gross figures might be purchases of foreign assets of 10% of GDP, and sale of British assets of 4% of GDP.
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Purchases of foreign assets might weaken the euro, helping exports.
If a wimpy greenback meant fewer purchases of foreign products by American consumers, domestic consumption in Europe and Japan might not rise by enough to take up the slack.
Its purchases of foreign assets keep the cost of capital down and its appetite for raw materials keeps their price up, to the benefit of commodity producers wherever they sell their wares.
But such requirements may do little more than offset the expansionary effects of the central bank's purchases of foreign exchange, made necessary by its stubborn refusal to allow the yuan to strengthen faster.
India's growth model has been to run a small current-account deficit, financed with high-quality capital inflows, such as foreign direct investment and equity purchases.
In the trading strategy that has apparently been at the center of the moves over the past week, foreign funds seem to have been hedging their currency risks when making their initial share purchases by selling yen in the foreign-exchange market.
Foreign funds had stepped up their purchases of ringgit-denominated sovereign debt in the run-up to the election.
So when its foreign sales fall, its overseas purchases drop as well.
In general foreign luxury goods are preferred, with top purchases being automobiles, clothing, cosmetics, purses and watches.
Given the losses they have already suffered through the pound's fall, will they step up their purchases, especially as the growth rate of global foreign-exchange reserves is slowing?
In the U.S., Chinese ranked second behind Canada in home purchases in 2012, accounting for 11% of foreign sales, up from 5% in 2007, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors.
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Housing prices in the big eastern seaboard cities like Beijing and Shanghai remain high compared to where they were five years ago, but have been coming down month over month due to the current policies that curb lending to the sector and restrict home purchases, especially for non-resident home buyers, foreign investors, and second or third home buyers.
Greek Foreign Minister Stavros Demas said Greece benefited from favorable financing terms in its Iran purchases, and that it will need help not only to find new suppliers but to also get the favorable financial terms they enjoyed from Iran.
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French wines have proved to be most popular for purchases from the UK government's cellars over the past year, a foreign office minister says.
Promisingly, the Chinese bank regulator announced draft rules in May to allow domestic and foreign institutions to set up consumer-finance firms to offer personal loans for consumer-goods purchases.
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