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International Investment Position

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Net IIP liability of €602 billion at end-September 2020

Table 5.1 International Investment Position€ billion
 30 June 202030 September 2020
 AssetsLiabilitiesNETAssetsLiabilitiesNET
General Government22.2167.4-145.122.2164.0-141.9
Monetary Authority79.720.059.680.120.559.6
Monetary Financial Institutions1,012.9934.878.2992.9918.574.4
Other Financial Intermediaries3,822.63,810.112.53,899.83,885.314.6
Non-Financial Companies911.31,550.2-638.9896.91,505.7-608.8
Total 5,848.86,482.5-633.75,891.96,494.0-602.1

At 30th September 2020, Ireland's quarterly international investment position (IIP) results show overall stocks of foreign financial assets of €5,892bn - an increase of €043bn on the end-June 2020 level, while the corresponding stocks of foreign financial liabilities increased by €011bn to €6,494bn over the quarter. Irish residents had an overall net foreign liability of €602bn at end-September 2020, a decrease of €32bn in the net foreign liability level at end-June 2020 - see Table 5.2.

X-axis labelNet IIP %GDP
Q42018-181
Q12019-172
Q22019-178
Q32019-175
Q42019-174
Q12020-176
Q22020-176
Q32020-164

Some points of note in the Quarter 3 2020 IIP are:

  • Direct Investment Abroad decreased by €14bn to €895bn.
  • Equity capital (including reinvested earnings) decreased €5.1bn while other capital decreased €8.4bn – see Table 3(a).
  • Foreign Assets of Other Financial Intermediaries increased by €77bn, with foreign liabilities increasing by €75bn, the resulting net increased to €15bn - see Table (1b).
  • Foreign Assets of the Monetary Authority increased by €0.4bn while foreign liabilities increased by €0.5bn.
    The resulting net decreased to €60bn - see Table (1b).
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentPortfolio InvestmentOther InvestmentReserve AssetsNet IIP
Q42018-70.5-428-96.84.6-590.8
Q12019-70.3-465.8-41.24.6-572.7
Q22019-87.4-501.4-194.7-603.1
Q32019-63.9-550.50.75-608.8
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

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

  • Net Portfolio Investment fell €54bn to -€554bn.
  • Net Other Investment rose €10bn to €59bn.
  • Reserve Assets grew €0.5bn to €5.7bn.
X-axis labelGeneral GovernmentMonetary Financial InstitutionsOther Financial IntermediariesNon-Financial Companies
31 Dec 20198625221166851
31 Mar 2020830437990759
30 Jun 20209244851153793
30 Sep 20209054721205814

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:

  • €905bn issued by foreign Governments
  • €472bn issued by foreign Monetary Financial Institutions (including Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €1205bn issued by foreign Other Financial Intermediaries (including Non-Money Market Investment Funds)
  • €814bn issued by foreign Non-Financial Companies
X-axis labelDirect InvestmentOther SectorsMonetary Financial InstitutionsMonetary AuthorityGeneral Government
Q42019636151426222147
Q12020628157028920155
Q22020554155427420167
Q32020508157426821164

Gross External Debt stands at €2.5 trillion at end-September 2020.

At 30th September 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 €2,534bn.
This represents a decrease of €35bn 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 June 2020 (€2,570bn) - see Table 6(a).

Points of note are:

  • General government foreign borrowing fell by €3bn to €164bn at end-September 2020.
  • Liabilities of the Monetary Authority consisting entirely of short term loans and deposits increased €0.5bn to €20.5bn. 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) fell €6.1bn to €268.1bn.
  • The liabilities of Other sectors at €1,574bn increased €19bn on the previous quarter.
  • This was made up of a rise in short-term debt of €1bn and a  rise in long-term debt of €18bn.
  • Direct investment liabilities decreased by €46bn to €508bn in the quarter.
  • The Net External Debt position was €1,369bn at end-September 2020, i.e. assets exceeded liabilities - see Table 6(b).

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) - 30th June 2020 - Reconciliation of IIP and BOP Flows

Table 5.9 Gross External Debt

Table 5.10 - Debt Instrument Financial Assets


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