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IRISH RESIDENTS NOW own €1,438 billion in foreign securities, according to Central Statistics Office figures as of 31 December 2010.
Investment in foreign securities refers to people making purchases in a country’s stock and bond markets.
The value of Irish residents’ holdings of foreign securities at the end of December 2010 was up €86 billion on the revised 2009 level of €1,353 billion.
The figures show that Irish residents now hold €101,982 million in United States equity; €214,451 million in US bonds and notes; and €82,567 million in US money market instruments – a total of €399 billion.
The overall investment in US securities showed an increase of €68.9 billion. Meanwhile, overall investment in UK securities showed a decrease of €4.4 billion between the end of 2009 and 2010.
UK equity held by Irish residents stands at €64, 313 million; UK bonds and notes at €146, 860 million; and UK money market instruments at €45, 880 million; for a total of over €257 billion.
So while UK equity investment and money market instruments increased by €10.9 billion and €6 billion respectively, the stock of bonds and notes fell by €21.3 billion.
The combined investment in US-issued and UK-issued instruments (€656 billion) accounted for relatively more (46 per cent) of the total stock than at the end of 2009, while investment in other euro-area countries (€481 billion), at 33 per cent of the total, decreased slightly.
Investment in French securities showed an increase of €11.6 billion to €105 billion, overtaking Italy as the third most popular investment location.
The biggest increase was in equity assets, which the CSO says was mainly “the result of further recovery in global equity markets”.
Equity securities include ordinary shares, stocks and participating preference shares. Equity assets now account for 32 per cent of total assets, up from 28 per cent in 2009.
These figures result from the CSO’s ongoing participation in the annual Co-ordinated Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS) conducted by the IMF. It collects data from financial and non-financial enterprises, including enterprises engaged in internationally-traded financial service activities, which are known collectively as IFSC (International Financial Services Centre) enterprises.
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Your choice of using billion, millions and trillions interchangeably nearly made my head explode! :o
Me too when I realised the error, Adam!
Thanks for flagging it!
It is a trillion, and these figures are the basis of the analysis that suggests that less than 1% of the entire population of Ireland own 34% of total wealth.
Who exactly are these residents? Would any be named Drum, Quinn, Quinlan, McNamara, Cowen, McCreevey etc???
Can they be taxed so that they pay off the state debts? No thought not.
That’s about €360,000 per person.
Deadly…so where do I have to go to pick up my 360k? Exactly what I need to pay off my mortgage, grand now!
Average, not median.
If your figure of 360,000 pp is true, what does that say about wealth in Ireland? I know I don’t have that amount of money and that is including pension, so I wonder how many are in the same boat?. But this does raise my suspicions! How come all our number crunching “celebrity economists” are not all over the airwaves explaining to us who owns all this wealth?? Surely they would be able to explain , don’t they know everthing! How come the media have not this plastered on the front page? welfare savings and reporting welfare recipients get front page to show savings of over 300 million , but wealth that is 40 times more at 1.4 trillion euro barely gets a mention! I know a considerable amount of people do not have personal pensions, if you include the public sector and the unemployed that number grows , so is this wealth the money sorted away by the likes of Sean Fitzpatrick, Michael Fingelton etc , why no analysis “celebrity economists” is some of this wealth yours too?
Surely the trillion in the first sentence is supposed to be a billion?
Hi Thomas – if you follow the link to the CSO document you’ll see it is a trillion. The ‘million’s were an error on my behalf, now that they’re replaced with billion you can see why it makes sense.
Cheers
Aoife
I don’t know who started this trend of dumbing down large numbers for effect but it’s bloody ridiculous. If it’s a trillion, make it a trillion. I don’t need my numbers "Gilmored" in order to understand them.
@Aoife – Trillion? I think you may have gone a little crazy with adding zeroes.
Hi Oisín – if you follow the link to the CSO document you’ll see it is a trillion. The ‘million’s were an error on my behalf, now that they’re replaced with billion you can see why it makes sense.
Cheers
Aoife
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