total irish debt the same as Japan

billy buttons

hi all

I have a question about Irish debt, CIA fact book says that total irish debt public and private comes to about 2.5 trillion USD! almost as much as Japan....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt

( I looked at the source and despite it being a wiki its accurate)

It works out to about 500,000 USD per capita or twice that if we look at the economically active population i.e. those in work, its over 1000% of GDP....
The numbers are from 2010 so its more than likely even worse now.

I know some of it is government debt, the classic public type,
and I would suppose the rest is a mixture of corporate/banking sector commitments as well as consumer debt.

While our net debt position a different matter,
Im just wondering if anyone can give a break down of this debt, the groups it belongs to, and how we attained so much in the first place?

Also how is it serviced?


I dont have a deep understanding of this issue so any enlightenment welcome

woodoo

Never fear. Big Phil Hogan is going to save the day with his Septic Tank Tax.

ninty9er

The vast majority is consumer debt. Fear not though. The UK personal debt situation is apparently much worse.

Dannyboy83

This is due to the IFSC.
It's not what you think.

Somebody less tired than me will explain it.

amacachi

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

This is due to the IFSC.
It's not what you think.

Somebody less tired than me will explain it.

Aye, Luxembourg are 3x "worse" than us despite their riches and stability. It's just all about where financial transfers are facilitated or some such.

Scofflaw

This should give you a fairly complete breakdown and up to date figures: http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/economy/current/externaldebt.pdf

As you say, the net external debt (minus external assets) is a different figure - the "Net International Investment Position" - and the name of that is worth thinking about. If our balance is positive, then we are a net international investor - if negative, then we're a net international investment target.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Thrill

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0630/breaking30.html

Ireland's external debt falls

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Ireland's external debt fell to €1,67 trillion in the first quarter of 2011, according to the Central Statistics Office.


This represents a decrease of €47 billlion from the €1.724 trillion recorded for the fourth quarter of 2010.


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


General government foreign borrowing increased by €14.5 billion to €80.6 billion in the quarter, the new data shows.


However, the liabilities of other sectors decreased by €18billion to €796 billion during the three-months under review.
Direct investment liabilities increased by €8billion to €254 billion while debt liablilities of financial institutions were down €46 billion to €393 billion.


At the end of March, Ireland's quarterly international investment position results show overall stocks of foreign financial assets of €2.559 billion, down €79 billion on the previous quarter.


The corresponding overall stocks of foreign financial liabilities of €2.714 billion fell by €66 billion in the same period.


Irish residents therefore had an overall net foreign liability of €155billion at the end of the first quarter.

ei.sdraob

Japanese debt is mostly owned by Japanese (big savings culture), while on the other hand only something like 15% of our state debt is owned by Irish, quite an important difference