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International Investment Position

International Investment Position

Net IIP liability of €396 billion at end-March 2025

Online ISSN: 2565-6384
CSO statistical release, , 11am
Table 7.1 International Investment Position€ billion
 31 December 2024 31 March 2025
 AssetsLiabilitiesNET AssetsLiabilitiesNET
General Government35.2112.6-77.4 36.9105.1-68.2
Monetary Authority122.236.286.0 116.936.680.3
Monetary Financial Institutions1,440.31,296.8143.5 1,484.41,342.9141.4
Other Financial Intermediaries6,184.76,050.3134.4 6,123.45,966.3157.2
Non-Financial Companies1,060.21,804.8-744.6 1,021.21,728.2-707.0
Total 8,842.69,300.6-458.0 8,782.89,179.1-396.3

At 31st March 2025, Ireland's quarterly international investment position ((IIP) results show overall stocks of foreign financial assets of €8,783bn - a decrease of €060bn on the end-December 2024 level, while the corresponding stocks of foreign financial liabilities decreased by €122bn to €9,179 over the quarter. Irish residents had an overall net foreign liability of €396bn at end-March 2025, a decrease of €62bn in the net foreign liability level at end-December 2024 - see Table 7.2.

X-axis labelNet IIP %GDP
Q22023-107
Q32023-107
Q42023-103
Q12024-98
Q22024-91
Q32024-81
Q42024-81
Q12025-66

Some points of note in the Quarter 1 2025 IIP are:

  • Direct Investment Abroad decreased by €23bn to €1169bn.
  • Equity capital (including reinvested earnings) decreased €33.1bn while other capital increased €10.1bn – see Table 7.5.
  • Foreign Assets of Other Financial Intermediaries decreased by €61bn. With foreign liabilities decreasing by €84bn, the resulting net increased to €157bn - see Table 7.3
  • Foreign Assets of the Monetary Authority decreased by €5.3bn while foreign liabilities increased by €0.4bn. The resulting net decreased to €80bn - see Table 7.3.
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentPortfolio InvestmentOther InvestmentReserve AssetsNet IIP
Q22023-10.1-869.1294.112-573.1
Q32023-68.8-816303.211.7-569.9
Q42023-30.7-848.7325.611.7-542.1
Q1202479.7-904.1297.711.8-514.9
Q2202433.5-854.6325.211.9-484.1
Q3202442.1-849.3358.911.5-436.8
Q42024102.4-937.5364.912.2-458
Q1202588.4-931.4434.612.1-396.3

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

  • Net Portfolio Investment rose €6bn to -€931bn.
  • Net Other Investment rose €70bn to €435bn.
  • Reserve Assets shrank €0.1bn to €12.1bn.
X-axis labelGeneral GovernmentMonetary Financial InstitutionsOther Financial IntermediariesNon-Financial Companies
30 Jun 202481563811972218
30 Sep 202484368212472285
31 Dec 202488272613282448
31 Mar 202586374012872397

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:

  • €863bn issued by foreign Governments
  • €740bn issued by foreign Monetary Financial Institutions (including Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €1287bn issued by foreign Other Financial Intermediaries (including Non-Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €2397bn issued by foreign Non-Financial Companies
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentOther SectorsMonetary Financial InstitutionsMonetary AuthorityGeneral Government
Q22024525196433735123
Q32024493195733735113
Q42024508205734836113
Q12025494201538937105

Gross External Debt stands at €3 trillion at end-March 2025

At 31st March 2025, the gross external debt of all resident sectors (i.e. general government, the monetary authority, financial and non-financial corporations and households) amounted to €3,040bn. This represents a decrease of €22bn 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 2024 (€3,062bn) - see Table 7.9.

Points of note are:

  • General government foreign borrowing fell by €7bn to €105bn at end-March 2025.
  • Liabilities of the Monetary Authority consisting entirely of short term loans and deposits increased €0.4bn to €36.6bn. 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 €41.4bn to €388.9bn.
  • The liabilities of Other sectors at €2,015bn decreased €42bn on the previous quarter.
  • This was made up of a fall in short-term debt of €46bn and a rise in long-term debt of €4bn.
  • Direct investment liabilities decreased by €14bn to €494bn in the quarter.
  • The Net External Debt position was €2,219bn at end-March 2025, 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.

Foreign OwnedIrish OwnedNet IIP
Q1 2023-619.253.9-565.4
Q2 2023-640.467.3-573.1
Q3 2023-65181-569.9
Q4 2023-631.389.2-542.1
Q1 2024-595.780.7-514.9
Q2 2024-587.1103-484.1
Q3 2024-546.1109.3-436.8
Q4 2024-596.3138.3-458
Q1 2025-571.3175-396.3

The figure above shows the contributions of Foreign owned and Domestically owned companies to the Net International Investment Position. Note that we are using the location of the Ultimate Controlling Parent to determine ownership.

We can see that while the overall International Investment Position is a net liability of €396bn at the end of March 2025. If we look at just Foreign owned companies the net liability is €571bn while for Domestically owned companies there are net assets of €175bn.

Table 7.11 below shows this further broken down by institutional sector. While table 7.12 shows this further broken down by functional category.

Table 7.2 International Investment Position (IIP) classified by Functional Category

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 by Foreign Assets

Table 7.6 International Investment Position (IIP) - Detailed Data by Foreign Liabilities

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

Table 7.8 International Investment Position (IIP) - 31st March 2025 - Reconciliation of IIP and BOP Flows

Table 7.9 Gross External Debt

Table 7.10 - Debt Instrument Financial Assets

Table 7.11 Net International Investment Position (IIP) classified by Ownership and Institutional Sector

Table 7.12 International Investment Position (IIP) classified by Ownership and Functional Category