Operating cash flow from continuing operations for 2017 was $2.7 billion, a $191 million, or 8 percent increase compared with 2016, reflecting higher earnings and favorable changes in working capital.
Operating cash flow from continuing operations of $2.5 billion in 2016 was a 23 percent increase compared to $2.0 billion in 2015, as comparisons benefited from income taxes of $424 million paid on the gains from divestitures in 2015.
At September 30, 2017, operating working capital as a percent of sales increased to 6.6 percent due to higher levels of working capital in the acquired valves & controls business, compared with 5.2 percent and 7.2 percent in 2016 and 2015, respectively.
Operating cash flow from continuing operations funded capital expenditures of $476 million, dividends of $1,239 million, common stock purchases of $400 million, and was also used to partially pay down debt in 2017.
Proceeds of $5.1 billion from the sales of the network power systems and power generation, motors and drives businesses funded acquisitions of $2,990 million, cash used for discontinued operations of $778 million and repayments of short-term borrowings and long-term debt of approximately $1.3 billion.
Contributions to pension plans were $45 million in 2017, $66 million in 2016 and $53 million in 2015.
Capital expenditures related to continuing operations were $476 million, $447 million and $588 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.
Free cash flow from continuing operations (operating cash flow less capital expenditures) was $2.2 billion in 2017, up 8 percent.
Free cash flow was $2.1 billion in 2016, compared with $1.5 billion in 2015.
The Company is targeting capital spending of approximately $550 million in 2018.
Net cash paid in connection with acquisitions was $2,990 million, $132 million and $324 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.
Proceeds from divestitures not classified as discontinued operations were $39 million in 2017 and $1,812 million in 2015.
Dividends were $1,239 million ($1.92 per share) in 2017, compared with $1,227 million ($1.90 per share) in 2016 and $1,269 million ($1.88 per share) in 2015.
In November 2017, the Board of Directors voted to increase the quarterly cash dividend 1 percent, to an annualized rate of $1.94 per share.
Purchases of Emerson common stock totaled $400 million, $601 million and $2,487 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively, at average per share prices of $60.51, $48.11 and $57.68.
The Board of Directors authorized the purchase of up to 70 million common shares in November 2015, and 56.9 million shares remain available for purchase under this authorization.
The Company purchased 6.6 million shares in 2017 under the November 2015 authorization.
In 2016, the Company purchased 12.5 million shares under a combination of the November 2015 authorization and the remainder of the May 2013 authorization.
A total of 43.1 million shares were purchased in 2015 under the May 2013 authorization.
## Table 0 ##
Total debt, which includes long-term debt, current maturities of long-term debt, commercial paper and other short-term borrowings, was $4.7 billion, $6.6 billion and $6.8 billion for 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.
During the year, the Company repaid $250 million of 5.125% notes that matured in December 2016.
In 2015, the Company issued $500 million of 2.625% notes due December 2021 and $500 million of 3.150% notes due June 2025, and repaid $250 million of 5.0% notes that matured in December 2014 and $250 million of 4.125% notes that matured in April 2015.
The total debt-to-capital ratio and the net debt-to-net capital ratio (less cash and short-term investments) decreased in 2017 due to lower total debt outstanding and higher common stockholders’ equity from changes in other comprehensive income.
The total debt-to-capital ratio and the net debt-to-net capital ratio (less cash and short-term investments) increased in 2016 due to lower common stockholders’ equity from share repurchases and changes in other comprehensive income.
The operating cash flow from continuing operations-to-debt ratio increased in 2017 primarily due to lower debt in the current year.
The operating cash flow from continuing operations-todebt ratio increased in 2016 primarily due to taxes paid in 2015 on the divestiture gains and lower debt in 2016.
The interest coverage ratio is computed as earnings from continuing operations before income taxes plus interest expense, divided by interest expense.
The increase in interest coverage in 2017 reflects lower interest expense in the current year.
The decrease in interest coverage in 2016 reflects lower pretax earnings, largely due to the divestiture gains of $1,039 million in 2015, and slightly higher interest expense.
In April 2014, the Company entered into a $3.5 billion fiveyear revolving backup credit facility with various banks, which replaced the December 2010 $2.75 billion facility.
The credit facility is maintained to support general corporate purposes, including commercial paper borrowing.
The Company has not incurred any borrowings under this or previous facilities.
The credit facility contains no financial covenants and is not subject to termination based on a change of credit rating or material adverse changes.
The facility is unsecured and may be accessed under various interest rate and currency denomination alternatives at the Company’s option.
Fees to maintain the facility are immaterial.
The Company also maintains a universal shelf registration statement on file with the SEC under which
upon regulatory approval.
The 2007 Trust Securities, will be exchanged into a like amount of Holding Company junior subordinated debentures on December 15, 2037, the scheduled redemption date; mandatorily under certain circumstances; and at any time upon the Holding Company exercising its option to redeem the securities.
The 2007 Trust Securities will be exchanged for junior subordinated debentures prior to repayment and the Holding Company is ultimately responsible for repayment of the junior subordinated debentures.
The Holding Company’s other rights and obligations as it relates to the deferral of interest, redemption, replacement capital obligation and RCC associated with the issuance of the Trust Securities are more fully described in “The Company — Liquidity and Capital Sources — Debt Issuances.
” As described more fully in “The Company — Liquidity and Capital Sources — Debt Issuances”: ?
In December 2007, the Holding Company, in connection with the collateral financing arrangement associated with MRC’s reinsurance of the closed block liabilities, entered into an agreement with an unaffiliated financial institution under which the Holding Company is entitled to the interest paid by MRC on the surplus notes of 3-month LIBOR plus 0.55% in exchange for the payment of 3-month LIBOR plus 1.12%, payable quarterly.
Under this agreement, the Holding Company may also be required to pledge collateral or make payments to the unaffiliated financial institution related to any decline in the estimated fair value of the surplus notes and in connection with any early termination of this agreement.
During the year ended December 31, 2008, the Holding Company paid $800 million to the unaffiliated financial institution related to a decline in the estimated fair value of the surplus notes.
This payment reduced the amount under the agreement on which the Holding Company’s interest payment is due but did not reduce the outstanding amount of the surplus notes.
In addition, the Holding Company had pledged collateral of $230 million to the unaffiliated financial institution at December 31, 2008.
No collateral was pledged at December 31, 2007.
The Holding Company’s net cost of 0.57% has been allocated to MRC.
For the year ended December 31, 2008, this amount was $14 million.
For the year ended December 31, 2007 this amount was immaterial.  ?
In May 2007, the Holding Company, in connection with the collateral financing arrangement associated with MRSC’s reinsurance of universal life secondary guarantees, entered into an agreement with an unaffiliated financial institution under which the Holding Company is entitled to the return on the investment portfolio held by a trust established in connection with this collateral financing arrangement in exchange for the payment of a stated rate of return to the unaffiliated financial institution of 3-month LIBOR plus 0.70%, payable quarterly.
The Holding Company may also be required to make payments to the unaffiliated financial institution, for deposit into the trust, related to any decline in the fair value of the assets held by the trust, as well as amounts outstanding upon maturity or early termination of the collateral financing arrangement.
As a result of this agreement, the Holding Company effectively assumed the $2.4 billion liability under the collateral financing agreement along with a beneficial interest in the trust holding the associated assets.
The Holding Company simultaneously contributed to MRSC its beneficial interest in the trust, along with any return to be received on the investment portfolio held by the trust.
For the year ended December 31, 2008, the Holding Company paid $320 million to the unaffiliated financial institution as a result of the decline in the fair value of the assets in the trust.
All of the $320 million was deposited into the trust.
In January 2009, the Holding Company paid an additional $360 million to the unaffiliated financial institution as a result of the continued decline in the fair value of the assets in trust which was also deposited into the trust.
In addition, the Holding Company may be required to pledge collateral to the unaffiliated financial institution under this agreement.
At December 31, 2008, the Holding Company had pledged $86 million under the agreement.
No collateral had been pledged under the agreement as December 31, 2007.
Interest expense incurred by the Holding Company under the collateral financing arrangement for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007 was $107 million and $84 million, respectively.
The allocation of these financing costs to MRSC is included in other revenues and recorded as an additional investment in MRSC.
In December 2006, the Holding Company issued junior subordinated debentures with a face amount of $1.25 billion.
See “The Company — Liquidity and Capital Sources — Debt Issuances” for further information.
In September 2006, the Holding Company issued $204 million of affiliated long-term debt with an interest rate of 6.07% maturing in 2016.
In March 2006, the Holding Company issued $10 million of affiliated long-term debt with an interest rate of 5.70% maturing in 2016.
The following table summarizes the Holding Company’s outstanding senior notes series, excluding any premium or discount, at December 31, 2008:
## Table 1 ##
(1) This amount represents the translation of pounds sterling into U. S.  dollars using the noon buying rate on December 31, 2008 of $1.4619 as announced by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
income to amounts needed to service the principal and interest due under the loan.
Generally, the lower the debt service coverage ratio, the higher the risk of experiencing a credit loss.
For our commercial mortgage loans, our average loan-to-value ratio was 52% and 55% at December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, and our average debt service coverage ratio was 2.6x and 2.4x at December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.
The commercial mortgage loan debt service coverage ratio and loan-to-value ratio, as well as the values utilized in calculating these ratios, are updated annually, on a rolling basis, with a portion of the commercial mortgage loan portfolio updated each quarter.
For our agricultural mortgage loans, our average loan-to-value ratio was 44% and 45% at December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.
The values utilized in calculating the agricultural mortgage loan loan-to-value ratio are developed in connection with the ongoing review of the agricultural loan portfolio and are routinely updated.
Mortgage Loan Valuation Allowances.
Our valuation allowances are established both on a loan specific basis for those loans considered impaired where a property specific or market specific risk has been identified that could likely result in a future loss, as well as for pools of loans with similar risk characteristics where a property specific or market specific risk has not been identified, but for which we expect to incur a loss.
Accordingly, a valuation allowance is provided to absorb these estimated probable credit losses.
The determination of the amount of valuation allowances is based upon our periodic evaluation and assessment of known and inherent risks associated with our loan portfolios.
Such evaluations and assessments are based upon several factors, including our experience for loan losses, defaults and loss severity, and loss expectations for loans with similar risk characteristics.
These evaluations and assessments are revised as conditions change and new information becomes available, which can cause the valuation allowances to increase or decrease over time as such evaluations are revised.
Negative credit migration, including an actual or expected increase in the level of problem loans, will result in an increase in the valuation allowance.
Positive credit migration, including an actual or expected decrease in the level of problem loans, will result in a decrease in the valuation allowance.
See Notes 1, 8 and 10 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for information about how valuation allowances are established and monitored, activity in and balances of the valuation allowance, and the estimated fair value of impaired mortgage loans and related impairments included within net investment gains (losses) as of and for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012.
Real Estate and Real Estate Joint Ventures We diversify our real estate investments by both geographic region and property type to reduce risk of concentration.
Of our real estate investments, 84% were located in the United States, with the remaining 16% located outside the United States, at December 31, 2014.
The carrying value of our real estate investments located in California, Japan and Florida were 19%, 13% and 9%, respectively, of total real estate investments at December 31, 2014.
Real estate investments by type consisted of the following at:
## Table 2 ##
We classify within traditional real estate our investment in income-producing real estate, which is comprised primarily of wholly-owned real estate and, to a much lesser extent, joint ventures with interests in single property income-producing real estate.
The estimated fair value of the traditional and held-for-sale real estate investment portfolios was $13.3 billion and $12.5 billion at December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.
We classify within real estate joint ventures and funds, our investments in joint ventures with interests in multi-property projects with varying strategies ranging from the development of properties to the operation of income-producing properties, as well as our investments in real estate private equity funds.
From time to time, we transfer investments from these joint ventures to traditional real estate after the completed property commences operations and, if we intend to retain an interest in the property.
In connection with our investment management business, in the fourth quarter of 2013, we contributed real estate investments with an estimated fair value of $1.4 billion to the MetLife Core Property Fund, our newly formed open ended core real estate fund, in return for the issuance of ownership interests in that fund.
As part of the initial closing on December 31, 2013, we redeemed 76% of our interest in this fund as new third party investors were admitted.
The MetLife Core Property Fund was consolidated as of December 31, 2013.
However, as a result of our quarterly reassessment in the first quarter of 2014, we no longer consolidate the MetLife Core Property Fund, effective March 31, 2014.
See Note 8 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further information
We enter into market standard purchased and written credit default swap contracts.
Payout under such contracts is triggered by certain credit events experienced by the referenced entities.
For credit default swaps covering North American corporate issuers, credit events typically include bankruptcy and failure to pay on borrowed money.
For European corporate issuers, credit events typically also include involuntary restructuring.
With respect to credit default contracts on Western European sovereign debt, credit events typically include failure to pay debt obligations, repudiation, moratorium, or involuntary restructuring.
In each case, payout on a credit default swap is triggered only after the Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association determines that a credit event has occurred.
Table of Contents 136 Current Environment As a global insurance company, we continue to be impacted by the changing global financial and economic environment, as well as the monetary policy of central banks around the world.
See “— Industry Trends — Financial and Economic Environment.
” Measures taken by central banks, including with respect to the level of interest rates, may have an impact on the pricing levels of risk-bearing investments and may adversely impact our business operations, investment portfolio and derivatives.
The current environment continues to impact our net investment income, net investment gains (losses), net derivative gains (losses), level of unrealized gains (losses) within the various asset classes in our investment portfolio, and our level of investment in lower yielding cash equivalents, short-term investments and government securities.
See “Risk Factors — Economic Environment and Capital Markets-Related Risks — We Are Exposed to Significant Global Financial and Capital Markets Risks Which May Adversely Affect Our Results of Operations, Financial Condition and Liquidity, and May Cause Our Net Investment Income to Vary from Period to Period.
” European Investments We maintain general account investments in Europe to support our insurance operations and related policyholder liabilities in these countries and certain of our non-European operations invest in Europe for diversification.
In Europe, we have proactively mitigated risk in both direct and indirect exposures by investing in a diversified portfolio of high quality investments with a focus on the higher-rated countries, including the U. K. , Germany, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Norway and Sweden.
The sovereign and agency debt of these countries continues to maintain investment grade credit ratings from all major rating agencies.
European sovereign and agency fixed maturity securities, at estimated fair value, were $8.6 billion at December 31, 2017.
Our European corporate securities (fixed maturity and perpetual hybrid securities classified as non-redeemable preferred stock) are invested in a diversified portfolio of primarily non-financial services securities, which comprised $19.3 billion, or 66%, of European total corporate securities, at estimated fair value, at December 31, 2017.
Of these European fixed maturity securities, 94% were investment grade and, for the 6% that were below investment grade, the majority were non-financial services corporate securities at December 31, 2017.
European financial services corporate securities, at estimated fair value, were $9.8 billion (including $6.4 billion within the banking sector) with 99% investment grade, at December 31, 2017.
Total European fixed maturity securities, at estimated fair value, were $38.2 billion at December 31, 2017, including $417 million of structured securities.
Selected Country Investments We have country specific exposure to volatility, as we maintain general account investments in the selected countries as summarized below to support our insurance operations and related policyholder liabilities in these countries and we also have exposure through our global portfolio diversification.
The following table presents a summary of fixed maturity securities in these countries.
The information below is presented on a country of risk basis (e. g.  the country where the issuer primarily conducts business).
Sovereign includes government and agency.

<table><tr><td>(dollars in millions)</td><td>2015</td><td>2016</td><td>2017</td></tr><tr><td>Total Assets</td><td>$22,088</td><td>21,732</td><td>19,589</td></tr><tr><td>Long-term Debt</td><td>$4,289</td><td>4,051</td><td>3,794</td></tr><tr><td>Common Stockholders' Equity</td><td>$8,081</td><td>7,568</td><td>8,718</td></tr><tr><td>Total Debt-to-Total Capital Ratio</td><td>45.8%</td><td>46.7%</td><td>34.8%</td></tr><tr><td>Net Debt-to-Net Capital Ratio</td><td>31.3%</td><td>31.3%</td><td>15.4%</td></tr><tr><td>Operating Cash Flow-to-Debt Ratio</td><td>29.8%</td><td>37.7%</td><td>57.8%</td></tr><tr><td>Interest Coverage Ratio</td><td>20.2X</td><td>11.8X</td><td>12.6X</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td> Date</td><td> Principal  (In millions)</td><td>Interest Rate</td><td> Maturity</td></tr><tr><td>August 2008</td><td>$1,035</td><td>6.82%</td><td>2018</td></tr><tr><td>June 2005</td><td>$1,000</td><td>5.00%</td><td>2015</td></tr><tr><td>June 2005</td><td>$1,000</td><td>5.70%</td><td>2035</td></tr><tr><td>June 2005 -1</td><td>$585</td><td>5.25%</td><td>2020</td></tr><tr><td>December 2004 -1</td><td>$512</td><td>5.38%</td><td>2024</td></tr><tr><td>June 2004</td><td>$350</td><td>5.50%</td><td>2014</td></tr><tr><td>June 2004</td><td>$750</td><td>6.38%</td><td>2034</td></tr><tr><td>November 2003</td><td>$500</td><td>5.00%</td><td>2013</td></tr><tr><td>November 2003</td><td>$200</td><td>5.88%</td><td>2033</td></tr><tr><td>December 2002</td><td>$400</td><td>5.38%</td><td>2012</td></tr><tr><td>December 2002</td><td>$600</td><td>6.50%</td><td>2032</td></tr><tr><td>November 2001</td><td>$750</td><td>6.13%</td><td>2011</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td colspan="4">December 31,</td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="2">2014</td><td colspan="2">2013</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>CarryingValue</td><td>% ofTotal</td><td>CarryingValue</td><td>% ofTotal</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>(In millions)</td><td></td><td>(In millions)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Traditional</td><td>$9,386</td><td>89.2%</td><td>$9,312</td><td>86.9%</td></tr><tr><td>Real estate joint ventures and funds</td><td>647</td><td>6.2</td><td>769</td><td>7.2</td></tr><tr><td>Subtotal</td><td>10,033</td><td>95.4</td><td>10,081</td><td>94.1</td></tr><tr><td>Foreclosed (commercial, agricultural and residential)</td><td>320</td><td>3.0</td><td>445</td><td>4.2</td></tr><tr><td>Real estate held-for-investment</td><td>10,353</td><td>98.4</td><td>10,526</td><td>98.3</td></tr><tr><td>Real estate held-for-sale</td><td>172</td><td>1.6</td><td>186</td><td>1.7</td></tr><tr><td>Total real estate and real estate joint ventures</td><td>$10,525</td><td>100.0%</td><td>$10,712</td><td>100.0%</td></tr></table>

Question: What's the growth rate of Real estate held-for-investment at Carrying Value on December 31 in 2014?
Answer: -0.01644