Back to Top

 Skip navigation

International Investment Position

Open in Excel:

Net IIP liability of €615 billion at end-December 2020

Table 5.1 International Investment Position€ billion
 30 September 202031 December 2020
 AssetsLiabilitiesNETAssetsLiabilitiesNET
General Government22.2164.0-141.922.2153.7-131.5
Monetary Authority80.120.559.673.320.752.7
Monetary Financial Institutions992.9918.574.41,055.7978.177.6
Other Financial Intermediaries3,899.83,885.314.64,158.14,157.60.5
Non-Financial Companies896.91,505.7-608.8988.61,602.9-614.2
Total 5,891.96,494.0-602.16,298.26,913.0-614.9

At 31st December 2020, Ireland's quarterly international investment position ((IIP) results show overall stocks of foreign financial assets of €6,298bn - an increase of €406bn on the end-September 2020 level, while the corresponding stocks of foreign financial liabilities increased by €419bn to €6,913bn over the quarter. Irish residents had an overall net foreign liability of €615bn at end-December 2020, an increase of €13bn in the net foreign liability level at end-September 2020 - see Table 5.2.

X-axis labelNet IIP %GDP
Q12019-172
Q22019-178
Q32019-175
Q42019-174
Q12020-176
Q22020-176
Q32020-165
Q42020-168

Some points of note in the Quarter 4 2020 IIP are:

  • Direct Investment Abroad increased by €88bn to €983bn.
  • Equity capital (including reinvested earnings) increased €95.8bn while other capital decreased €7.5bn – see Table 5.5.
  • Foreign Assets of Other Financial Intermediaries increased by €258bn, with foreign liabilities increasing by €272bn, the resulting net decreased to €0bn  - see Table 5.3.
  • Foreign Assets of the Monetary Authority decreased by €6.8bn while foreign liabilities increased by €0.2bn. The resulting net decreased to €53bn  - see Table 5.3.
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentPortfolio InvestmentOther InvestmentReserve AssetsNet IIP
Q12019-70.3-465.8-41.24.6-572.7
Q22019-87.4-501.4-194.7-603.1
Q32019-64-550.50.75-608.8
Q42019-59.1-550.6-14.15.1-618.8
Q12020-104.3-582.1425.3-639.2
Q22020-188-500.449.55.2-633.7
Q32020-113-554.259.45.7-602.1
Q42020-116.8-601.597.16.2-615

Figure 2 shows the net IIP over time along with the contribution of each instrument type to it.

  • Net Portfolio Investment fell €47bn to -€601bn.
  • Net Other Investment rose €38bn to €97bn.
  • Reserve Assets grew €0.5bn to €6.2bn.
X-axis labelGeneral GovernmentMonetary Financial InstitutionsOther Financial IntermediariesNon-Financial Companies
31 Mar 2020830437990759
30 Jun 20209244851153793
30 Sep 20209054721205814
31 Dec 20209535041329852

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:

  • €953bn issued by foreign Governments
  • €504bn issued by foreign Monetary Financial Institutions (including Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €1329bn issued by foreign Other Financial Intermediaries (including Non-Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €852bn issued by foreign Non-Financial Companies
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentOther SectorsMonetary Financial InstitutionsMonetary AuthorityGeneral Government
Q12020628157028920155
Q22020554155427420167
Q32020508157426821164
Q42020514160427721154

Gross External Debt stands at €2.6 trillion at end-December 2020.

At 31st December 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 €2,570bn.
This represents an increase of €36bn 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 2020 (€2,534bn) - see Table 5.9.

Points of note are:

  • General government foreign borrowing fell by €10bn to €154bn at end-December 2020.
  • Liabilities of the Monetary Authority consisting entirely of short-term loans and deposits increased €0.2bn to €20.7bn. 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 €9.1bn to €277.3bn.
  • The liabilities of Other sectors at €1,604bn increased €31bn on the previous quarter.
  • This was made up of a rise in short-term debt of €18bn and a rise in long-term debt of €13bn.
  • Direct investment liabilities increased by €6bn to €514bn in the quarter.
  • The Net External Debt position was €1,434bn at end-December 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 December 2020 - Reconciliation of IIP and BOP Flows

Table 5.9 Gross External Debt

Table 5.10 - Debt Instrument Financial Assets


Next Chapter >> News and Developments