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International Investment Position

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Net IIP liability of €612 billion at end-March 2020

Table 5.1 International Investment Position€ billion
 31 December 201931 March 2020
 AssetsLiabilitiesNETAssetsLiabilitiesNET
General Government22.2147.1-124.921.8155.5-133.6
Monetary Authority66.319.946.566.320.046.3
Monetary Financial Institutions941.2879.861.5993.1917.575.6
Other Financial Intermediaries3,823.53,805.318.23,616.53,599.816.7
Non-Financial Companies942.51,540.2-597.6916.71,534.0-617.3
Total 5,795.86,392.3-596.45,614.46,226.7-612.3

At 31st March 2020, Ireland's quarterly international investment position (IIP) results show overall stocks of foreign financial assets of €5,614bn - a decrease of €181bn on the end-December 2019 level, while the corresponding stocks of foreign financial liabilities decreased by €166bn to €6,227bn over the quarter. Irish residents had an overall net foreign liability of €612bn at end-March 2020, an increase of €16bn in the net foreign liability level at end-December 2019 - see Table 5.2.

X-axis labelNet IIP %GDP
Q22018-159
Q32018-148
Q42018-165
Q12019-162
Q22019-166
Q32019-168
Q42019-172
Q12020-174

Some points of note in Quarter 1 2020 IIP are:

  • Direct Investment Abroad decreased by €36bn to €930bn.
  • Equity capital (including reinvested earnings) increased €12.7bn while other capital decreased €48.6bn – see Table 5.5.
  • Foreign Assets of Other Financial Intermediaries decreased by €207bn. With foreign liabilities decreasing by €206bn, the resulting net decreased to €17bn  - see Table 5.3. 
  • Foreign Assets of the Monetary Authority decreased by €27m while foreign liabilities increased by €176m. The resulting net decreased to €46.3bn  - see Table 5.3. 
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentPortfolio InvestmentOther InvestmentReserve AssetsNet IIP
Q22018-34.2-466.1-3.43.8-500
Q3201839.1-505.1-13.43.9-475.5
Q42018-50.2-401.4-86.94.6-534
Q12019-47.8-418.7-704.7-531.9
Q22019-46.4-458.3-54.74.8-554.7
Q32019-46.3-454-78.55-573.7
Q42019-31.3-500.8-69.55.1-596.4
Q12020-92-578.7535.3-612.3

Figure 5.2 shows the net IIP over time along with the contribution of each instrument type to it.

  • Net Portfolio Investment fell €78bn to -€579bn.
  • Net Other Investment rose €123bn to €53bn.
  • Reserve Assets grew €0.2bn to €5.3bn.
X-axis labelGeneral GovernmentMonetary Financial InstitutionsOther Financial IntermediariesNon-Financial Companies
30 Jun 20197215101018736
30 Sep 20198445481080815
31 Dec 20198615391165828
31 Mar 2020830437993759

For Portfolio Investment assets, equity and debt securities, the sector of the non-resident issuer is collected. Analysing this data shows that Irish residents hold debt as follows:

  • €830bn issued by foreign Governments
  • €437bn issued by foreign Monetary Financial Institutions (including Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €993bn issued by foreign Other Financial Intermediaries (including Non-Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €759bn issued by foreign Non-Financial Companies
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentOther SectorsMonetary Financial InstitutionsMonetary AuthorityGeneral Government
Q22019618133825919153
Q32019637146726319151
Q42019623148726220147
Q12020614156728920155

Gross External Debt stands at €2.6 trillion at end-March 2020

At 31st March 2020, the gross external debt of all resident sectors (i.e. general government, the monetary authority, financial and non-financial corporations and households) amounted to €2,646bn.

This represents an increase of €107bn in the stock of financial liabilities to non-residents (other than those arising from issues of Irish equities and derivatives contracts) compared to the level shown at 31st December 2019 (€2,539bn) - see Table 5.9.

Points of note are:

  • General government foreign borrowing rose by €8bn to €155bn at end-March 2020.
  • Liabilities of the Monetary Authority increased €0.2bn to €20bn. These liabilities are to the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and include balances in the TARGET2 settlement system of the ESCB.
  • Debt liabilities of Monetary financial institutions (credit institutions and money market funds) rose €27bn to €288.8bn.
  • The liabilities of Other sectors at €1,567bn increased €81bn on the previous quarter.
  • This was made up of a rise in short-term debt of €5bn and a  rise in long-term debt of €76bn.
  • Direct investment liabilities decreased by €9bn to €614bn in the quarter.
  • The Net External Debt position was €1,218bn at end-March 2020, i.e. assets exceeded liabilities - see Table 5.10.

Gross external debt represents the stock of Ireland's liabilities to non-residents other than equity and financial derivatives.

Table 5.2 International Investment Position (IIP) classified by Financial Instrument

Table 5.3 International Investment Position (IIP) classified by Institutional Sector

Table 5.4 International Investment Position (IIP) - IFSC and non-IFSC activity by Institutional Sector

Table 5.5 International Investment Position (IIP) - Detailed Data

Table 5.6 International Investment Position (IIP) - Detailed Data

Table 5.7 International Investment Position (IIP) showing IFSC and non-IFSC activity

Table 5.8 International Investment Position (IIP) - 31st March 2020 - Reconciliation of IIP and BOP Flows

Table 5.9 Gross External Debt

Table 5.10 - Debt Instrument Financial Assets


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