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Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2023

Investment in foreign securities increased to €4.5 trillion at end of 2023

Online ISSN: 2009-6747

CSO statistical release, 03 October 2024, 11am

Key Findings

The value of Irish residents’ holdings of foreign securities at the end of December 2023 amounted to €4,454bn, an increase of €522bn on the 2022 amount.
Combined investment in US-issued and UK-issued instruments (€2,400bn) accounted for 53.9% of the total stock.
Overall investment in US securities increased to €1,746bn.
Investment in UK securities rose to €654bn.
Total investment in investment funds went up by €419bn to €2,994bn – the corresponding total investment in money market funds increased by €42bn to €498bn.
Significant holdings between 2022 and 2023 are also shown for France (€283bn, up 17.1%) Luxembourg (€163bn, down 11.7%), Germany (€159bn, up 9.0%), the Netherlands (€148bn, up 4.7%), Japan (€143bn, up 3.3 %) and Italy (€132bn, up 55.3 %).

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (03 October 2024) released the Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2023.

Commenting on the release, Mavo Ralazamahaleo, Statistician in the International Accounts section of the CSO, said:

“Irish resident holdings of foreign portfolio securities reached €4,454bn at the end of December 2023, up €522bn on the 2022 value of €3,931bn. This was largely due to an increase in holdings of equity and bonds & notes which were up €319bn and €175bn respectively. Investment in US-issued and UK-issued instruments remains strong and for the fifth consecutive year their combined investment has exceeded 50% of the total resident holdings.

Foreign portfolio securities remain predominantly invested in Investment Funds and Money Market Funds where holdings rose by €419bn and €42bn respectively to €2,994bn and €498bn at the end of 2023.”

The PxStat tables related to this release (BPA02 and BPA32) were revised on the 5th of February 2025 to incorporate revisions to data from 2013 to 2019.

Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities - 31 December 2023				€ million
	Equity	Bonds and Notes	Money Market Instruments	Total
2023
Total	2,107,195	1,743,237	603,141	4,453,573
of which:
United States	1,035,956	536,527	173,665	1,746,148
United Kingdom	167,787	365,636	120,924	654,347
France	65,980	144,262	73,012	283,254
Luxembourg	106,248	45,443	11,459	163,150
Germany	47,642	89,225	22,611	159,478

Open in Excel: Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2023 Headline Table (XLS 60KB)

Investment in foreign securities increased to €4.5 trillion at the end of 2023

The value of Irish residents’ holdings of foreign securities at the end of December 2023 amounted to €4,454bn, up €522bn on the 2022 level of €3,931bn. The increase was largely accounted for by increases in equity and bonds & notes assets.

A total of €2,400bn was attributed to a combined investment in US-issued and UK-issued instruments. Together, they accounted for more than half of the total stock.

	Equity	Bonds	MMIs
United States	1035.95	536.527	173.665
United Kingdom	167.787	365.636	120.924
France	65.98	144.262	73.012
Luxembourg	106.248	45.443	11.459
Germany	47.642	89.225	22.611
Other	683.588	562.144	201.471

Other points of note from the end of 2023 results are:

Overall investment in US securities increased by €338bn to €1,746bn and prevailed as the most attractive investment location. US investment in equity rose by €227bn and US investment in bonds & notes and money market instruments went up by €75bn and €36bn respectively (See Table 1). Investment funds accounted for 78% of US securities while investment by money market funds accounted for just 8% of the US securities total (See Table 2).
Investment in UK securities grew by €48bn to €654bn, holding its position as the second most popular investment location. France was still ranked in third place where investment increased by €41bn to €283bn.
Significant holdings are also shown for Luxembourg (€163bn, down 11.7%), Germany (€159bn, up 9.0%), the Netherlands (€148bn, up 4.7%), Japan (€143bn, up 3.3 %), and Italy (€132bn, up 55.3 %).
Total investment in investment funds increased by €419bn to €2,994bn – the corresponding total investment in money market funds grew by €42bn to €498bn (See Table 2).

	Debt	Equity
Central Bank	13.138865008	0
Banks	37.092833301	1.834820178
Money Market Funds	498.287236563	0
Investments Funds	1224.690319	1769.641472791
Insurance & Pensions	97.397636718	229.315843034
Government	0.680505141	4.323339814
Other	475.090230185	102.079720791

^{Central Bank: S121}
^{Banks: S122}
^{Money Market Funds: S123}
^{Investment Funds: S124}
^{Insurance & Pensions: S128/S129}
^{Government: S13}
^{Other: S1V/S12O}

	Debt	Equity
2021	2463.228619	2049.031804
2022	2143.486338	1787.946425
2023	2346.377626	2107.195215

This release also provides analysis by country of issuer and sector of holder (Table 2). Corresponding data for 2022 are shown including revisions resulting from more recent information. Overall, the data are compatible in form and content with the data being submitted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of Ireland’s on-going participation in the IMF’s world-wide bi-annual Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey. They are also consistent with the portfolio investment stock statistics published on the 05 September 2024 in the International Accounts Quarter 2 2024 – see the Background Notes for more information. More detailed geographical analysis is available on the CSO’s open data portal PxStat.

Table 1 Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities - by Country of Issue

Table 1 Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities¹ - by Country of Issuer								€ million
Country	Equity		Bonds and Notes		Money Market Instruments		Total
Country	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2023	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2023	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2023	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2023
Australia	19,672	20,685	13,166	16,405	19,597	21,813	52,435	58,903
Austria	2,153	2,143	7,118	9,696	3,300	2,407	12,571	14,246
Belgium	4,692	5,315	10,915	14,836	22,464	21,534	38,072	41,685
Bermuda	13,156	12,201	6,538	7,612	274	587	19,969	20,401
Brazil	7,499	9,347	4,405	5,274	71	76	11,975	14,696
Canada	27,219	28,501	25,264	26,060	31,404	31,188	83,887	85,749
Cayman Islands	99,856	92,695	20,269	18,844	4,304	3,017	124,429	114,556
China	29,846	25,419	10,096	9,244	2,125	1,303	42,067	35,967
Denmark	14,557	17,560	9,197	12,829	5,463	5,764	29,217	36,153
Finland	7,258	6,879	9,078	11,115	15,038	10,820	31,375	28,814
France	56,851	65,980	126,666	144,262	58,395	73,012	241,912	283,254
Germany	38,804	47,642	82,469	89,225	25,012	22,611	146,285	159,478
Hong Kong	11,250	9,704	2,217	1,825	2,046	408	15,513	11,937
India	29,640	39,147	2,844	3,277	26	146	32,510	42,569
Indonesia	4,286	4,713	6,201	6,286	0	0	10,487	10,999
Italy	18,535	53,433	67,231	76,143	-714	2,469	85,051	132,044
Japan	75,622	85,124	20,463	21,113	42,811	37,220	138,897	143,457
Jersey	8,855	9,543	5,092	6,565	183	167	14,130	16,275
Korea, Republic of	19,778	25,187	6,519	7,540	587	170	26,884	32,897
Luxembourg	129,498	106,248	43,200	45,443	12,113	11,459	184,811	163,150
Mexico	3,922	*	9,866	*	0	0	13,788	15,915
Netherlands	39,460	45,830	74,279	81,826	27,609	20,290	141,348	147,947
Norway	7,646	8,557	9,306	10,572	6,159	8,187	23,111	27,316
Poland	922	*	3,882	*	0	0	4,804	7,305
Portugal	3,816	3,788	2,945	3,662	1	73	6,762	7,523
Russian Federation	117	97	779	616	0	0	896	713
Singapore	5,368	5,664	3,146	3,265	7,527	4,665	16,041	13,594
South Africa	5,522	4,796	5,794	5,179	53	5	11,370	9,979
Spain	12,577	14,663	41,671	48,320	2,869	3,119	57,117	66,103
Sweden	13,991	17,710	15,908	20,992	11,278	9,598	41,176	48,300
Switzerland	42,318	49,060	13,963	14,899	2,647	667	58,928	64,625
Taiwan, Province of China	22,065	29,079	22	20	0	0	22,087	29,100
Turkey	1,105	1,100	3,031	3,342	0	5	4,136	4,447
United Kingdom	156,438	167,787	337,588	365,636	112,273	120,924	606,298	654,347
United States	809,005	1,035,956	461,655	536,527	137,408	173,665	1,408,068	1,746,148
Other countries ³	44,647	47,422	87,466	79,533	15,867	11,926	147,978	138,882
International Organisations	0	4	18,366	20,249	6,681	3,846	25,048	24,099
Total	1,787,946	2,107,195	1,568,615	1,743,237	574,871	603,141	3,931,433	4,453,573
¹The figures exclude Reserve Assets (see Background Notes).
²Revised.
³This category includes data supplied by respondents without a geographical breakdown.
*Suppressed for confidentiality reasons.
Differences of figures are due to rounding.

Open in Excel: Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2023 Table 1 (XLS 20KB)

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Table 2a Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities - by Country of Issuer and Sector Holder

Table 2a Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities¹ - by Country of Issuer and Sector of Holder, 2023									€ million
Country	Central Bank	Banks	Money Market Funds	Investment Funds	Insurance & Pensions	Government	Non financial corporations, households and NPISH	Other financial institutions	Total
	S121	S122	S123	S124	S128/9	S13	S1V	S12O
	31 Dec 2023	31 Dec 2023	31 Dec 2023	31 Dec 2023	31 Dec 2023	31 Dec 2023	31 Dec 2023	31 Dec 2023	31 Dec 2023
Australia	0	900	21,745	30,852	1,975	8	0	3,423	58,903
Austria	336	369	2,188	8,180	1,469	1	0	1,703	14,246
Belgium	969	1,088	20,187	12,534	3,012	2	0	3,892	41,685
Bermuda	0	*	0	14,672	*	2	0	5,334	20,401
Brazil	0	0	0	14,376	*	14	*	100	14,696
Canada	560	297	28,854	47,977	2,815	37	0	5,211	85,749
Cayman Islands	0	*	1,375	103,395	*	185	73	7,082	114,556
China	0	*	1,289	32,940	*	24	*	614	35,967
Denmark	77	353	4,805	26,557	1,975	7	0	2,379	36,153
Finland	179	713	9,908	10,558	3,071	3	0	4,381	28,814
France	3,755	4,718	67,014	122,548	*	72	*	60,896	283,254
Germany	581	1,474	17,405	83,580	19,857	55	11	36,515	159,478
Hong Kong	0	*	365	10,714	*	3	0	302	11,937
India	0	*	0	40,412	*	9	*	1,038	42,569
Indonesia	0	0	0	10,806	169	4	0	21	10,999
Italy	1,056	2,374	248	53,745	46,130	59	0	28,432	132,044
Japan	94	327	22,855	110,468	4,466	93	0	5,155	143,457
Jersey	0	*	91	13,025	*	1	3	2,186	16,275
Korea, Republic of	187	*	170	28,562	*	1	0	2,317	32,897
Luxembourg	71	243	6,679	65,093	57,318	261	0	33,484	163,150
Mexico	0	0	0	15,207	287	7	0	414	15,915
Netherlands	210	780	19,155	74,449	8,104	33	0	45,215	147,947
Norway	136	771	7,449	13,828	2,583	1	0	2,548	27,316
Poland	97	*	0	4,560	*	3	0	835	7,305
Portugal	111	389	0	2,790	426	0	0	3,807	7,523
Russian Federation	0	0	0	613	2	0	0	98	713
Singapore	0	*	4,592	7,967	*	2	0	483	13,594
South Africa	0	*	0	9,738	*	3	0	11	9,979
Spain	991	2,451	2,291	36,577	6,687	20	0	17,086	66,103
Sweden	0	780	9,110	23,286	5,686	7	0	9,430	48,300
Switzerland	69	61	304	44,343	10,541	21	0	9,286	64,625
Taiwan Province of China	0	0	0	27,847	1,237	6	0	10	29,100
Turkey	0	0	0	3,921	61	3	0	461	4,447
United Kingdom	0	5,265	105,438	402,647	*	1,358	*	90,661	654,347
United States	0	8,802	134,875	1,360,245	*	2,029	*	180,568	1,746,148
Other countries²	71	733	5,695	114,519	7,397	670	67	9,730	138,882
International Organisations	3,589	3,350	4,200	10,801	373	0	0	1,787	24,099
Total	13,139	38,928	498,287	2,994,332	326,713	5,004	275	576,895	4,453,573
¹The figures exclude Reserve Assets (see Background Notes).
²This category includes data supplied by respondents without a geographical breakdown.
*Suppressed for confidentiality reasons.
Differences of figures are due to rounding.

Open in Excel: Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2023 Table 2a (XLS 15KB)

Visit Table BPA32 on PxStat

Table 2b Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities - by Country of Issuer and Sector Holder

Table 2b Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities¹ - by Country of Issuer and Sector of Holder, 2022									€ million
Country	Central Bank	Banks	Money Market Funds	Investment Funds	Insurance & Pensions	Government	Non financial corporations, households and NPISH	Other financial institutions	Total
	S121	S122	S123	S124	S128/9	S13	S1V	S12O
	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2022²	31 Dec 2022²
Australia	0	1,412	19,037	27,933	1,741	29	0	2,283	52,435
Austria	301	262	2,405	6,324	1,237	0	0	2,041	12,571
Belgium	1,058	568	20,551	9,421	2,720	3	0	3,752	38,072
Bermuda	0	*	0	13,532	*	1	0	6,040	19,969
Brazil	0	0	0	11,656	*	6	*	140	11,975
Canada	654	997	30,513	41,601	2,579	27	0	7,515	83,887
Cayman Islands	0	*	2,020	111,381	*	1	76	8,546	124,429
China	0	*	2,015	37,387	*	11	*	1,524	42,067
Denmark	182	270	4,727	20,208	1,758	3	0	2,069	29,217
Finland	127	518	13,437	9,710	2,921	6	0	4,656	31,375
France	3,512	4,047	51,198	101,610	21,825	207	0	59,513	241,912
Germany	336	-118	20,394	71,510	17,173	55	5	36,929	146,285
Hong Kong	0	*	2,045	12,521	*	3	0	287	15,513
India	0	*	0	30,979	*	0	*	584	32,510
Indonesia	0	0	0	10,290	*	4	*	20	10,487
Italy	848	1,938	120	41,775	13,437	56	0	26,877	85,051
Japan	0	1,917	28,786	99,665	3,754	44	0	4,731	138,897
Jersey	0	*	129	12,032	*	0	3	1,598	14,130
Korea, Republic of	152	*	568	22,138	*	0	0	2,727	26,884
Luxembourg	0	534	6,642	59,979	86,137	118	0	31,402	184,811
Mexico	0	0	0	12,883	292	5	0	608	13,788
Netherlands	174	1,243	24,404	63,799	6,862	32	0	44,833	141,348
Norway	136	1,034	5,535	11,955	1,856	3	0	2,592	23,111
Poland	98	157	0	3,217	191	1	0	1,140	4,804
Portugal	112	380	4	2,223	382	0	0	3,660	6,762
Russian Federation	0	0	0	762	4	0	0	130	896
Singapore	0	*	7,617	7,526	*	2	0	328	16,041
South Africa	0	*	0	11,103	*	2	0	6	11,370
Spain	1,061	1,386	2,789	29,947	6,274	20	0	15,640	57,117
Sweden	0	1,238	10,165	15,502	4,719	7	0	9,545	41,176
Switzerland	15	182	1,024	38,503	7,915	14	0	11,275	58,928
Taiwan Province of China	0	0	0	21,014	1,063	1	4	4	22,087
Turkey	0	0	0	3,431	74	3	0	628	4,136
United Kingdom	0	3,545	100,275	372,472	45,055	1,570	40	83,341	606,298
United States	0	6,328	84,075	1,100,352	51,930	2,621	273	162,489	1,408,068
Other countries³	87	826	9,939	119,439	6,445	278	107	10,864	147,978
International Organisations	3,839	3,009	5,664	9,922	399	0	0	2,215	25,048
Total	12,692	32,177	456,078	2,575,702	296,578	5,133	541	552,532	3,931,433
¹The figures exclude Reserve Assets (see Background Notes).
²Revised.
³This category includes data supplied by respondents without a geographical breakdown.
*Suppressed for confidentiality reasons.
Differences of figures are due to rounding.

Open in Excel: Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2023 Table 2b (XLS 21KB)

Visit Table BPA32 on PxStat

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Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2023