External debt rises to €1.74 trillion

Ireland's external debt rose to €1

Ireland's external debt rose to €1.74 trillion at the end of June, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

This represents a €63 billion increase compared to the €1.67 billion recorded at the end of March.

The figures include general government, the monetary authority, financial and non-financial corporations and households.

Much of the external debt total is offset by holdings of foreign financial assets by Irish residents, the CSO said.

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General government foreign borrowing decreased by over €3 billion to €80 billion in the second quarter, the new data shows.

However, the liabilities of other sectors increased by €17 billion from the end of March and at €657 billion represented 38 per cent of the total debt, a similar share to the previous quarter. CSO attributed the increase to currency fluctuations.

Direct investment liabilities increased by €17 billion to €262 billion in the second quarter.

Liabilities of monetary financial institutions which consist mostly of loans and debt securities, were €672 billion, an increase of over €5 billion from March but down compared to June 2009.

Ireland’s quarterly international investment position (IIP) results show overall stocks of foreign financial assets of €2,500billion – an increase of €108 billion from the end of March.

The corresponding overall stocks of foreign financial liabilities of €2,643 billion were up €126 billion.

Irish residents had an overall net foreign liability of almost €143billion in the three months to the end of June, an increase of €18 billion on the previous quarter’s figure of almost €125 billion.