Back to Top

How is the CSO doing?

Your feedback can help us improve and enhance our services to the public. Tell us what matters to you in our online Customer Satisfaction Survey.

 Skip navigation

International Investment Position

Open in Excel:

Net IIP liability of €453 billion at end-December 2018

Table 5.1 International Investment Position€ billion
 30 Sep 201831 Dec 2018
 AssetsLiabilitiesNETAssetsLiabilitiesNET
General Government25.0155.0-130.024.9148.9-124.0
Monetary Authority47.018.029.045.421.324.1
Monetary Financial Institutions734.4692.242.2795.2743.851.4
Other Financial Intermediaries3,360.93,273.687.33,211.63,183.727.9
Non-Financial Companies782.41,233.4-451.0743.81,176.2-432.5
Total 4,949.85,372.2-422.44,820.85,273.9-453.1

At 31st December 2018, Ireland's quarterly international investment position (IIP) results show overall stocks of foreign financial assets of €4,821bn - a decrease of €129bn on the end-September 2018 level, while the corresponding stocks of foreign financial liabilities decreased by €98bn to €5,274bn over the quarter. Irish residents had an overall net foreign liability of €453bn at end-December 2018, an increase of €31bn in the net foreign liability level at end-September 2018 - see Table 5.2.

X-axis labelNet IIP %GDP
Q12017-170
Q22017-169
Q32017-159
Q42017-149
Q12018-143
Q22018-140
Q32018-134
Q42018-142

Some points of note in Quarter 4 2018 IIP are:

  • Direct Investment Abroad decreased by €27bn to €797bn.
  • Equity capital (including reinvested earnings) decreased €4.5bn while other capital decreased €22.6bn – see Table 5.5.
  • Foreign Assets of Other Financial Intermediaries decreased by €149bn. With foreign liabilities decreasing by €90bn, the resulting net decreased to €28bn  - see Table 5.3.
  • Foreign Assets of the Monetary Authority decreased by €1.6bn while foreign liabilities increased by €3.3bn. The resulting net decreased to €24bn  - see Table 5.3.
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentPortfolio InvestmentOther InvestmentReserve AssetsNet IIP
Q1 201730.6-440.5-62.23.3-468.9
Q2 2017 43-497.2-22.83.4-473.6
Q3 2017 21.1-440.2-45.13.6-460.6
Q4 2017-27.3-426.511.63.7-438.4
Q1 2018-19.5-402.7-15.63.7-434.1
Q220184.2-439.9-4.23.8-436.1
Q3201872.9-477.6-21.73.9-422.4
Q420182.3-370.4-89.54.6-453.1

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

  • Net Portfolio Investment rose €107bn to -€370bn.
  • Net Other Investment fell €68bn to -€90bn.
  • Reserve Assets grew €0.6bn to €4.6bn.
X-axis labelGeneral GovernmentMonetary Financial InstitutionsOther Financial IntermediariesNon-Financial Companies
31 Mar 2018683486877681
30 Jun 2018686470938709
30 Sep 2018691459981712
31 Dec 2018708456901692

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:

  • €708bn issued by foreign Governments
  • €456bn issued by foreign Monetary Financial Institutions (including Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €901bn issued by foreign Other Financial Intermediaries (including Non-Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €692bn issued by foreign Non-Financial Companies
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentOther SectorsMonetary Financial InstitutionsMonetary AuthorityGeneral Government
Q1 2018637119519917139
Q22018653124420018146
Q32018657127119318155
Q42018647127823621149

Gross External Debt stands at €2.3 trillion at end-December 2018.

At 31st December 2018, the gross external debt of all resident sectors (i.e. general government, the monetary authority, financial and non-financial corporations and households) amounted to €2,332bn.

This represents an increase of €38bn 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 30th September 2018 (€2,294bn) - see Table 5.9.

Points of note are:

  • General government foreign borrowing fell by €6bn to €149bn at end-December 2018.
  • Liabilities of the Monetary Authority increased €3.3bn to €21.3bn. 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 €43.1bn to €236.3bn. 
  • The liabilities of Other sectors at €1,278bn increased €7bn on the previous quarter. This was made up of a rise in short-term debt of €11bn and a fall in long-term debt of €5bn.
  • Direct investment liabilities decreased by €9bn to €647bn in the quarter.
  • The Net External Debt position was €1,195bn at end-December 2018, i.e. assets exceeded liabilities - see Table 5.10.
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 December 2018 - Reconciliation of IIP and BOP Flows

Table 5.9 Gross External Debt

Table 5.10 - Debt Instrument Financial Assets


Next Chapter >> News and Developments