mechanism to settle future concentrate sales to our bottling partner in Venezuela, the Company's outstanding receivables balance related to these sales will continue to increase. 

The Company will continue to manage its foreign currency exposure to mitigate, over time, a portion of the impact of exchange rate changes on net income and earnings per share. 

Impact of Inflation and Changing Prices 

Inflation affects the way we operate in many markets around the world. In general, we believe that, over time, we are able to increase prices to counteract the majority of the inflationary effects of increasing costs and to generate sufficient cash flows to maintain our productive capability. 

The table above includes the impact of the following transactions and events: 

Cash and cash equivalents increased $4,286 million, or 50 percent, primarily due to increased receipts from customers and commercial paper. A majority of the Company's consolidated cash and cash equivalents balance is held by our foreign subsidiaries. 

Short-term investments decreased $1,594 million, or 59 percent, primarily due to the maturity of time deposits. 

Other investments, principally bottling companies increased $510 million, or 81 percent, primarily due to the merger of Arca and Contal. Refer to Note 17 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information related to the merger. 

Other assets increased $1,374 million, or 65 percent, primarily due to long-term investments made by our captive insurance company, the fair value of interest rate swap agreements, and the impact of certain pension contributions. These pension contributions resulted in certain plans being in a net asset position. 

Goodwill increased $554 million, or 5 percent, primarily due to our acquisitions of Great Plains and Honest Tea in addition to purchase accounting adjustments related to our acquisition of CCE's North American business. 

Loans and notes payable increased $4,771 million, or 59 percent, primarily due to an increase in our commercial paper balance. 

Other liabilities increased $626 million, or 13 percent, primarily due to the decrease in the weighted-average discount rate used to calculate the Company's pension benefit obligation.