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International Investment Position

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Net IIP liability of €610 billion at end-March 2022

Table 7.1 International Investment Position€ billion
 31 December 202131 March 2022
 AssetsLiabilitiesNETAssetsLiabilitiesNET
General Government22.5152.2-129.722.6141.5-118.9
Monetary Authority112.530.881.7114.731.183.6
Monetary Financial Institutions1,051.7960.890.81,067.5974.193.4
Other Financial Intermediaries5,145.05,087.757.45,023.64,980.343.3
Non-Financial Companies1,233.51,953.9-720.41,134.31,846.1-711.8
Total 7,565.28,185.4-620.27,362.77,973.1-610.4

At 31st March 2022, Ireland's quarterly international investment position (IIP) results show overall stocks of foreign financial assets of €7,363bn - a decrease of €203bn on the end-December 2021 level, while the corresponding stocks of foreign financial liabilities decreased by €212bn to €7,973bn over the quarter. Irish residents had an overall net foreign liability of €610bn at end-March 2022, a decrease of €10bn in the net foreign liability level at end-December 2021 - see Table 7.2.

X-axis labelNet IIP %GDP
Q22020-199
Q32020-193
Q42020-177
Q12021-175
Q22021-156
Q32021-153
Q42021-145
Q12022-138

Some points of note in the Quarter 1 2022 IIP are:

  • Direct Investment Abroad decreased by €95bn to €1,176bn.
  • Equity capital (including reinvested earnings) decreased by €91.9bn, while other capital decreased by €3bn – see Table 7.5.
  • Foreign Assets of Other Financial Intermediaries decreased by €121bn.With foreign liabilities decreasing by €107bn, the resulting net decreased to €43bn  - see Table 7.3.
  • Foreign Assets of the Monetary Authority increased by €2.2bn while foreign liabilities increased by €0.3bn. The resulting net increased to €84bn  - see Table 7.3.
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentPortfolio InvestmentOther InvestmentReserve AssetsNet IIP
Q22020-265.7-53876.25.2-722.3
Q32020-214.3-605.998.15.8-716.2
Q42020-149.6-632.5116.36-659.8
Q12021-127.2-630.384.36.6-666.6
Q22021-92.8-682148.66.6-619.6
Q32021-48.5-755.116510.8-627.8
Q4202139.2-838.8167.711.7-620.2
Q12022-60.4-785.622411.6-610.4

Figure 7.2 shows the net IIP over time along with the contribution of each instrument type to it.

  • Net Portfolio Investment rose €53bn to -€786bn.
  • Net Other Investment rose €56bn to €224bn.
  • Reserve Assets shrank €0bn to €11.6bn.
X-axis labelGeneral GovernmentMonetary Financial InstitutionsOther Financial IntermediariesNon-Financial Companies
30 Jun 2021983.796223775615534.755888214265966.4471713728561602.91691054725
30 Sep 2021999.51986545352537.048995702015994.6374162030941641.10224314751
31 Dec 20211060.00141642106599.3556928952341034.829980507661767.57646555952
31 Mar 2022987.484698858544577.3930677678891003.938872817861686.6831483323

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:

  • €987bn issued by foreign Governments
  • €577bn issued by foreign Monetary Financial Institutions (including Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €1,004bn issued by foreign Other Financial Intermediaries (including Non-Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €1,687bn issued by foreign Non-Financial Companies
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentOther SectorsMonetary Financial InstitutionsMonetary AuthorityGeneral Government
Q22021561.7735068941821686.05560086151290.60232828130426.112977646157.0303842814
Q32021605.4001233862451720.89800131598284.84029441173930.319055325154.7223665854
Q42021645.7538004891061813.65664907476260.89943987091230.795965906152.2008963743
Q12022662.3832109872851794.0567577619288.9488170062631.068116093141.5036436363

Gross External Debt stands at €2.9 trillion at end-March 2022.

At 31st March 2022, the gross external debt of all resident sectors (i.e. general government, the monetary authority, financial and non-financial corporations and households) amounted to €2,918bn.
This represents an increase of €15bn 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 2021 (€2,903bn) - see Table 7.9.

Points of note are:

  • General government foreign borrowing fell by €11bn to €142bn at end-March 2022.
  • Liabilities of the Monetary Authority consisting entirely of short-term loans and deposits increased €0.3bn to €31.1bn. 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 €28bn to €288.9bn.
  • The liabilities of Other sectors at €1,794bn decreased by €20bn on the previous quarter. This was made up of a fall in short-term debt of €6bn and a fall in long-term debt of €13bn.
  • Direct investment liabilities increased by €17bn to €662bn in the quarter.
  • The Net External Debt position was €1,566bn at end-March 2022, i.e. assets exceeded liabilities - see Table 7.10.

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

Table 7.2 International Investment Position (IIP) classified by Financial Instrument

Table 7.3 International Investment Position (IIP) classified by Institutional Sector

Table 7.4 International Investment Position (IIP) - IFSC and non-IFSC activity by Institutional Sector

Table 7.5 International Investment Position (IIP) - Detailed Data

Table 7.6 International Investment Position (IIP) - Detailed Data

Table 7.7 International Investment Position (IIP) showing IFSC and non-IFSC activity

Table 7.8 International Investment Position (IIP) - 31st March 2022 - Reconciliation of IIP and BOP Flows

Table 7.9 Gross External Debt

Table 7.10 - Debt Instrument Financial Assets