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Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2022

Investment in foreign securities fell to €3.9 trillion at end of 2022

Online ISSN: 2009-6747

CSO statistical publication, 29 September 2023, 11am

Key Findings

The value of Irish residents’ holdings of foreign securities at end-December 2022 amounted to €3,929bn, a drop of €576bn on the 2021 amount.
Combined investment in US-issued and UK-issued instruments (€2,015bn) accounted for 51.3% of the total stock.
Overall investment in US securities fell to €1,404bn.
Investment in UK securities decreased to €611bn.
Total investment in investment funds decreased by €468bn to €2,576bn – the corresponding total investment in money market funds declined by €19bn to €456bn.
Significant holdings were also shown for France (€242bn, down 10.7%) Luxembourg (€183bn, down 13.3%), Germany (€146bn, down 10.9%), the Netherlands (€141bn, down 3.2%), Japan (€138bn, up 0.6 %), and the Cayman Islands (€125bn, up 2.0 %).

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (29 September 2023) released the Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2022.

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

“Irish resident holdings of foreign portfolio securities reached €3,929bn at end-December 2022, a drop of €576bn on the 2021 value of €4,505bn. This was largely due to a decline in holdings of bonds and notes and equity which were down €308bn and €259bn respectively. Investment in US-issued and UK-issued instruments remained strong and for the fourth consecutive year their combined investment exceeded 50% of the total resident holdings. Foreign portfolio securities remained predominantly invested in Investment Funds and Money Market Funds where holdings decreased by €468bn and €19bn respectively to €2,576bn and €456bn at end 2022.”

Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities - 31 December 2022				€ million
	Equity	Bonds and Notes	Money Market Instruments	Total
2022
Total	1,793,250	1,562,492	573,177	3,928,919
of which:
United States	811,286	455,653	136,678	1,403,617
United Kingdom	160,189	338,967	112,272	611,428
France	56,843	126,553	58,484	241,880
Luxembourg	128,245	42,942	12,113	183,300
Germany	38,771	82,042	25,008	145,821

Open in Excel: Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2022 Headline Table (XLS 32KB)

Investment in foreign securities fell to €3.9 trillion at end of 2022

The value of Irish residents’ holdings of foreign securities at end-December 2022 amounted to €3,929bn, down €576bn on the 2021 level of €4,505bn. The decrease was largely accounted for by decreases in bonds and notes and equity assets.

A total of €2,015bn were 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	811.286	455.653	136.678
United Kingdom	160.189	338.967	112.272
France	56.843	126.553	58.484
Luxembourg	128.245	42.942	12.113
Germany	38.771	82.042	25.008
Other	597.916	516.335	228.622

Other points of note from the end-2022 results are:

Overall investment in US securities decreased by €203bn to €1,404bn and prevailed as the most attractive investment location. US investment in equity decreased by €128bn and US investment in bonds and notes and money market instruments dropped by €45bn and €30bn respectively (See Table 1). Investment funds accounted for 78% of US securities while investment by money market funds accounted for just 6% of the US securities total (See Table 2).
Investment in UK securities decreased by €205bn to €611bn, holding its position as the second most popular investment location. France was still ranked in third place where investment dropped by €29bn to €242bn.
Significant holdings were also shown for Luxembourg (€183bn, down 13.3%), Germany (€146bn, down 10.9%), the Netherlands (€141bn, down 3.2%), Japan (€138bn, up 0.6 %) and the Cayman Islands (€125bn, up 2.0 %).
Total investment in investment funds decreased by €468bn to €2,576bn – the corresponding total investment in money market funds dropped by €19bn to €456bn (See Table 2).

	Debt	Equity
Central Bank	12.692241312	0
Banks	31.995969672827	1.81078425027726
Money Market Funds	456.077914881933	0
Investments Funds	1086.682391	1488.95151061614
Insurance & Pensions	84.2843720568555	212.12196096964
Government	0.634232201	4.498621093
Other	463.301826812815	87.4965447195

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

	Debt	Equity
2020	2122.62856822	1559.26189608
2021	2452.58460711	2052.03672569
2022	2135.66894794	1793.24971582

This release also provides analysis by country of issuer and sector of holder (Table 2). Corresponding data for 2021 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 01 September 2023 in the International Accounts Quarter 2 2023 – see Background Notes. More detailed geographical analysis is available on 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 2021²	31 Dec 2022	31 Dec 2021²	31 Dec 2022	31 Dec 2021²	31 Dec 2022	31 Dec 2021²	31 Dec 2022
Australia	20,091	19,679	16,382	13,147	20,578	19,597	57,051	52,423
Austria	2,727	2,158	7,872	7,105	3,709	3,300	14,308	12,563
Belgium	5,101	4,657	10,968	10,921	15,457	22,502	31,526	38,080
Bermuda	14,146	13,466	6,967	6,552	0	274	21,113	20,292
Brazil	6,280	7,459	4,531	4,413	44	72	10,855	11,944
Canada	29,805	27,271	27,062	25,163	24,915	31,404	81,782	83,838
Cayman Islands	87,642	100,489	31,402	20,262	3,507	4,303	122,551	125,054
China	34,165	29,873	25,326	10,078	1,294	2,125	60,785	42,076
Denmark	13,735	14,569	12,869	9,268	4,343	5,466	30,947	29,303
Finland	8,368	7,252	8,810	9,077	10,639	15,038	27,817	31,367
France	63,710	56,843	137,612	126,553	69,399	58,484	270,721	241,880
Germany	49,790	38,771	89,479	82,042	24,403	25,008	163,672	145,821
Hong Kong	11,796	11,236	2,531	2,215	3,838	2,046	18,165	15,497
India	31,510	29,624	2,922	2,848	20	26	34,452	32,498
Indonesia	3,961	4,284	7,917	6,187	3	0	11,881	10,471
Italy	17,799	18,461	72,573	67,143	-688	-718	89,684	84,886
Japan	88,938	75,618	23,090	20,461	24,922	41,727	136,950	137,806
Jersey	11,907	8,989	5,559	5,051	184	182	17,650	14,222
Korea, Republic of	26,211	19,535	6,242	6,518	90	587	32,543	26,640
Luxembourg	150,731	128,245	47,425	42,942	13,273	12,113	211,429	183,300
Mexico	3,941	3,928	12,072	9,837	0	0	16,013	13,765
Netherlands	51,820	39,575	80,315	74,066	13,742	27,624	145,877	141,265
Norway	8,096	7,641	9,113	9,333	4,066	6,159	21,275	23,133
Poland	1,199	921	2,887	3,878	0	0	4,086	4,799
Portugal	4,289	3,807	3,937	2,949	44	1	8,270	6,757
Russian Federation	6,076	119	5,319	781	0	0	11,395	900
Singapore	5,304	5,397	4,125	3,147	6,259	7,527	15,688	16,071
South Africa	5,386	5,524	6,290	5,796	533	53	12,209	11,373
Spain	13,303	12,576	45,314	41,800	3,935	2,869	62,552	57,245
Sweden	21,084	13,964	15,613	15,729	15,203	11,256	51,900	40,949
Switzerland	44,181	41,946	14,454	13,931	11,654	2,647	70,289	58,524
Taiwan, Province of China	32,522	22,087	229	22	3	0	32,754	22,109
Turkey	787	1,104	3,832	3,023	4	1	4,623	4,128
United Kingdom	187,742	160,189	508,096	338,967	120,436	112,272	816,274	611,428
United States	938,891	811,286	500,850	455,653	167,058	136,678	1,606,799	1,403,617
Other countries ³	6,155	5,545	11,901	22,581	2,943	4,460	20,999	32,586
International Organisations	0	0	19,808	18,405	6,833	6,681	26,641	25,086
Total	2,052,037	1,793,250	1,870,361	1,562,492	582,224	573,177	4,504,622	3,928,919
¹The figures exclude Reserve Assets (see Background Notes).
²Revised
³This category includes data supplied by respondents without a geographical breakdown.
*Suppressed for confidentiality reasons.

Open in Excel: Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2022 Table 1 (XLS 14KB)

Visit Table BPA02 on PxStat

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, 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 2022	31 Dec 2022	31 Dec 2022	31 Dec 2022	31 Dec 2022	31 Dec 2022	31 Dec 2022	31 Dec 2022	31 Dec 2022
Australia	0	1,412	19,037	27,940	1,735	29	0	2,270	52,423
Austria	301	262	2,405	6,319	1,235	0	0	2,041	12,563
Belgium	1,058	568	20,551	9,435	2,714	3	0	3,751	38,080
Bermuda	0	*	0	13,864	*	1	0	6,036	20,292
Brazil	0	0	0	*	*	6	*	*	11,944
Canada	654	997	30,513	41,487	2,581	27	0	7,579	83,838
Cayman Islands	0	*	2,020	112,033	*	1	76	8,521	125,054
China	0	*	2,015	37,396	*	10	*	1,524	42,076
Denmark	182	270	4,727	20,306	1,755	3	0	2,060	29,303
Finland	127	518	13,437	9,712	2,921	5	0	4,647	31,367
France	3,512	4,047	51,198	101,696	21,796	207	0	59,424	241,880
Germany	336	-117	20,394	71,200	17,161	55	5	36,787	145,821
Hong Kong	0	*	2,045	*	*	3	0	*	15,497
India	0	*	0	30,966	*	0	*	585	32,498
Indonesia	0	0	0	10,273	*	4	*	20	10,471
Italy	849	1,938	120	41,616	13,437	56	0	26,870	84,886
Japan	0	1,918	28,786	98,578	3,749	44	0	4,731	137,806
Jersey	0	*	130	12,167	*	0	0	1,558	14,222
Korea, Republic of	152	*	568	21,895	*	0	0	2,727	26,640
Luxembourg	0	534	6,642	58,743	86,128	118	0	31,135	183,300
Mexico	0	0	0	12,860	292	5	0	608	13,765
Netherlands	174	1,243	24,404	63,890	6,816	32	0	44,706	141,265
Norway	136	1,034	5,535	11,997	1,856	3	0	2,572	23,133
Poland	98	157	0	3,212	191	1	0	1,140	4,799
Portugal	112	381	4	2,218	382	0	0	3,660	6,757
Russian Federation	0	0	0	766	4	0	0	130	900
Singapore	0	*	7,617	7,537	*	2	0	346	16,071
South Africa	0	*	0	11,107	*	2	0	6	11,373
Spain	1,061	1,386	2,789	30,099	6,274	20	0	15,616	57,245
Sweden	0	1,238	10,165	15,299	4,719	7	0	9,521	40,949
Switzerland	15	182	1,024	38,101	7,902	14	0	11,286	58,524
Taiwan Province of China	0	0	0	21,036	1,063	1	4	5	22,109
Turkey	0	0	0	3,424	74	2	0	628	4,128
United Kingdom	0	3,545	100,275	374,541	45,051	1,570	6	86,440	611,428
United States	0	6,328	84,075	1,100,236	51,906	2,621	242	158,209	1,403,617
Other countries²	86	823	9,938	119,550	6,461	281	1	10,669	147,809
International Organisations	3,839	3,009	5,664	9,988	371	0	0	2,215	25,086
Total	12,692	32,177	456,078	2,575,634	296,406	5,133	367	550,432	3,928,919
¹The figures exclude Reserve Assets (see Background Notes).
²This category includes data supplied by respondents without a geographical breakdown.
*Suppressed for confidentiality reasons.

Open in Excel: Resident Holdings of Foreign Portfolio Securities 2022 Table 2a (XLS 15KB)

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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, 2021									€ 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 2021²	31 Dec 2021²	31 Dec 2021²	31 Dec 2021²	31 Dec 2021²	31 Dec 2021²	31 Dec 2021²	31 Dec 2021²	31 Dec 2021²
Australia	0	*	19,471	31,186	*	5	0	3,405	57,051
Austria	162	253	3,284	6,760	1,543	0	0	2,306	14,308
Belgium	739	426	14,432	9,779	3,091	2	0	3,057	31,526
Bermuda	0	*	0	15,845	*	1	0	4,772	21,113
Brazil	0	*	0	*	170	0	0	*	10,855
Canada	620	1,442	23,041	45,482	2,462	18	0	8,717	81,782
Cayman Islands	0	*	2,108	106,968	*	30	0	10,636	122,551
China	0	*	1,217	56,765	*	1	*	1,674	60,785
Denmark	182	332	3,353	22,878	1,329	1	0	2,872	30,947
Finland	92	482	10,226	9,938	3,224	2	0	3,853	27,817
France	3,802	6,868	60,867	110,811	24,639	189	0	63,545	270,721
Germany	230	3,162	19,003	84,160	18,839	54	5	38,219	163,672
Hong Kong	0	*	3,802	*	*	3	0	*	18,165
India	0	*	0	33,105	*	0	*	477	34,452
Indonesia	0	0	0	11,671	178	0	0	32	11,881
Italy	1,819	5,639	203	49,082	10,970	69	0	21,902	89,684
Japan	0	1,708	20,343	105,339	4,290	16	0	5,254	136,950
Jersey	0	104	118	15,491	545	0	3	1,389	17,650
Korea, Republic of	203	*	91	29,042	*	0	0	1,829	32,543
Luxembourg	0	485	9,171	70,416	103,534	85	1	27,737	211,429
Mexico	0	0	0	14,892	328	0	0	793	16,013
Netherlands	229	1,571	13,890	82,245	8,054	39	0	39,849	145,877
Norway	136	1,047	3,616	11,787	1,995	0	0	2,694	21,275
Poland	99	338	0	2,901	192	2	0	554	4,086
Portugal	113	1,230	34	2,593	409	0	0	3,891	8,270
Russian Federation	0	0	0	11,065	178	0	0	152	11,395
Singapore	0	*	6,127	*	*	1	0	*	15,688
South Africa	0	0	481	11,491	226	0	0	11	12,209
Spain	1,846	3,294	2,324	33,320	6,351	17	0	15,400	62,552
Sweden	0	1,276	14,331	19,778	7,199	5	0	9,311	51,900
Switzerland	0	*	8,885	44,043	*	8	0	11,772	70,289
Taiwan Province of China	0	0	0	31,357	1,249	3	0	145	32,754
Turkey	0	0	0	4,470	49	0	0	104	4,623
United Kingdom	0	4,819	107,560	555,586	50,516	1,687	43	96,063	816,274
United States	0	5,252	114,223	1,236,314	60,001	2,743	272	187,994	1,606,799
Other countries³	124	949	6,482	123,986	6,308	99	160	13,987	152,095
International Organisations	4,060	2,615	6,670	10,620	466	0	0	2,210	26,641
Total	14,456	45,264	475,353	3,043,525	332,926	5,080	504	587,514	4,504,622
¹The figures exclude Reserve Assets (see Background Notes).
²Revised.
³This category includes data supplied by respondents without a geographical breakdown.
*Suppressed for confidentiality reasons.