FinObservatory

Country profile / IRL

Ireland

One canonical page for Ireland’s financial profile, composed from the crisis atlas, IMF sovereign-debt data, the World Bank GFDD and Global Findex, the BIS credit, policy-rate and exchange-rate statistics, the external accounts (IMF balance of payments and international investment position, official reserves, capital-account openness and remittances), and the Penn World Table’s population and GDP scale. Each section links to its dedicated module and cites its own primary source; sections appear only where Ireland has data.

Latest government debt
41.1%
2024 (General govt (IMF GDD))
Financial crises on record
12
12 banking, 0 currency, 0 sovereign
Private credit by banks
28.0%
GFDD, 2021
BIS credit-cycle data
Covered
gap, credit, property
Nonperforming loans (current)
1.0%
IMF FSI, 2025

Cross-border banking exposure: how much BIS-reporting banks lend to Ireland.

Economic scale

Population, real GDP per capita, and total-factor productivity from the Penn World Table, 1950–2023. A scale reference for every other section on this page, not a financial-risk series in its own right.

Population
5.2023
millions
2.003.004.005.006.0019502023
Real GDP per capita (PPP)
13254323
2021 US$, chained
0.005000010000015000019502023
Total factor productivity
0.9823
index, this country's 2021 = 1
0.250.500.751.001.2519542023

Source: Penn World Table 11.0 (Feenstra, Inklaar and Timmer 2015). License: CC BY 4.0. Methodology

Crisis history

Full crisis atlas →

2 episodes between 2007 and 2021. Consecutive crisis years are merged into episodes (gaps of up to two years bridged); each links to its episode page.

BankingCurrencySovereign debt

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 | Reinhart-Rogoff (HBS BFFS) | Laeven & Valencia (2020, 2026) | ECB/ESRB Financial Crises Database. License: non-commercial research (inherits GMD / JST); cite all five chronologies. Methodology

Financial depth and soundness

Depth (private credit, deposits) and soundness (Z-score, nonperforming loans, concentration) from the World Bank GFDD. GFDD values end in 2021 (the dataset’s last release year); a flat recent tail is the data stopping, not the sector standing still.

Private credit by banks
28.021
% of GDP
0.0050.010015020019602021
Bank deposits
73.321
% of GDP
0.0050.010015019602021
Bank Z-score
11.021
index (higher = sounder)
0.0010.020.020002021
Nonperforming loans
3.5420
% of gross loans
0.0010.020.030.019982020
Bank concentration
73.821
% assets, top 3 banks
40.060.080.010020002021

Source: World Bank Global Financial Development Database (Sep 2022). License: CC BY 4.0. Values end 2021 (GFDD's last release year). Methodology

Current soundness (IMF FSI)

The World Bank GFDD soundness series above end in 2021. The IMF Financial Soundness Indicators are current: annual through 2025. These deposit-taker core indicators cover capital adequacy (regulatory and Tier 1 capital to risk-weighted assets), asset quality (nonperforming loans), earnings (return on assets and equity), and liquidity (liquid assets to total assets). Each panel is a standalone series with its own scale; the headline is the latest value and its year.

Regulatory capital
28.625
% of risk-weighted assets
10.020.030.020052025
Tier 1 capital
26.725
% of risk-weighted assets
10.020.030.020052025
Nonperforming loans
1.0125
% of gross loans
0.0010.020.030.020052025
Return on assets
1.1125
% (annualized)
-4.00-2.000.002.0020052025
Return on equity
8.7225
% (annualized)
-75.0-50.0-25.00.0025.020052025
Liquid assets
31.925
% of total assets
15.020.025.030.035.020162025

Source: IMF Financial Soundness Indicators (FSI). License: IMF, free with "Source: IMF, Financial Soundness Indicators" attribution. Deposit-taker core set; coverage varies by indicator and year. Methodology

Financial inclusion

How much of the adult population (age 15+) is inside the financial system, from the World Bank Global Findex 2025: account ownership, digital payments, and formal saving and borrowing. Findex is a survey run in waves (2011, 2014, 2017, 2021, 2024), so each card is a wave sparkline with the latest reading and the change since the first wave available for Ireland.

Account ownership
98.32024
% age 15+
5 waves, 2011-2024+4.4 pp since 2011
Made or received a digital payment
98.22021
% age 15+
3 waves, 2014-2021+8.5 pp since 2014
Saved at a financial institution
63.52021
% age 15+
4 waves, 2011-2021+12.2 pp since 2011
Borrowed from a financial institution
54.12021
% age 15+
3 waves, 2014-2021+3.7 pp since 2014

Source: World Bank Global Findex Database 2025. License: CC BY 4.0. Survey waves; percent of adults age 15+. Methodology

The BIS credit cycle: the credit-to-GDP gap (actual minus one-sided HP trend, the Basel III early-warning measure), private non-financial credit, the debt-service ratio, and real house prices. One reading per year (latest quarter). Shaded bands mark this country's crisis episodes.

Credit-to-GDP gap
-82.125
pp (actual minus HP trend)
-200-1000.0010019812025
Private non-financial credit
11625
% of GDP
0.0010020030040019712025
Debt service ratio
No data for this country
Real residential property
14626
index, 2010 = 100
0.0050.010015020019702026

Source: BIS credit and debt-service statistics | BIS residential property prices. License: free with "Source: BIS" attribution. Crisis-window shading from the crisis atlas. Methodology

Policy rate and exchange rate

The monetary-policy and currency backdrop from the BIS: the central-bank policy rate (latest reading and a 10-year monthly path) and, where reported, the real broad effective exchange rate (index, 2020 = 100; a rise is real appreciation). The BIS policy-rate set covers 48 economies and the euro area, and its real broad EER covers 63, both wider than the roughly 44-economy BIS credit set above but not the whole world. Ireland is not in the BIS central-bank policy-rate set.

Real effective exchange rate
102.62026-05
index, 2020 = 100 (broad)
monthly, 2016-06 to 2026-05

Source: BIS central bank policy rates | BIS effective exchange rates. License: free with "Source: BIS" attribution. Methodology

External accounts

Ireland’s external position: the current-account balance (IMF, percent of GDP), the net international investment position and total official reserves (both shown as US-dollar levels, in billions, because the IMF IIP and World Bank reserve series carry dollar values rather than ratios), the degree of capital-account openness (the Chinn-Ito index, 0 closed to 1 open), and remittance inflows. A positive current account or net-IIP reading is a surplus/creditor position; a negative one is a deficit/debtor position. Each panel appears only where Ireland has that series.

Current-account balance
16.224
% of GDP
-40.0-20.00.0020.019802024
Net international investment position
-45024
US$ billion (level)
-1000-5000.0020052024
Total reserves
13.725
US$ billion
0.005.0010.015.019602025
Capital-account openness
1.002023
index, 0 = closed, 1 = open
annual, 1970 to 2023
Remittance inflows
0.662024
US$ billion
annual, 1990 to 2024

Remittance inflows are shown as external-flow context (household income received from abroad), not a FinObservatory risk score.

Source: IMF Balance of Payments and IIP Statistics | World Bank, Total reserves (FI.RES.TOTL.CD). License: IMF and World Bank, free with attribution ("Source: IMF"; World Bank reserves CC BY 4.0). Current account and net IIP: IMF BOP/IIP, to 2025. Reserves: World Bank FI.RES.TOTL.CD, to 2025. Methodology

Source: Chinn-Ito index of capital-account openness (Chinn and Ito 2006). License: research use with citation only (Chinn-Ito); not for commercial redistribution. Capital-account openness ends 2023. Methodology

Source: World Bank / KNOMAD Migration and Remittances Data. License: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank / KNOMAD). Remittance inflows end 2024; shown as context, not a risk score. Methodology

International debt securities

Outstanding international debt securities issued by Ireland’s residents, by issuer sector, from the BIS: bonds and notes placed outside the home market (residence basis), in US-dollar billions. These are international issues only: domestic-market issuance is excluded, so this is not a country’s total debt-securities outstanding and is far smaller than its whole bond market. “All issuers” is the total; the government, financial-corporation and non-financial-corporation lines are its components, each shown only where the BIS reports it.

All issuers
$1.5T
2026-Q1
General government
$12.5B
2026-Q1
Financial corporations
$1.4T
2026-Q1
Non-financial corporations
$50.7B
2026-Q1
All issuersGeneral governmentFinancial corporationsNon-financial corporations
$0.00B$500B$1.0T$1.5T19751980198519901995200020052010201520202025AllFinNon-finGovt

Source: BIS debt securities statistics (international debt securities). License: free with "Source: BIS" attribution. International issues only (residence basis); domestic issuance excluded. Quarterly, 1971-Q1 to 2026-Q1. Methodology

Latest government debt 41.1% of GDP (2024, General govt (IMF GDD)). Peak 118.7% in 2012. This is below the 80.7% median at which 2000+ sovereign crises began (a comparison, not a prediction).

Latest debt
41.1%
2024
Peak debt
118.7%
2012
Sovereign crises
0
none on record

Source: IMF Global Debt Database | IMF World Economic Outlook. License: IMF, free with "Source: IMF" attribution. Methodology

Ireland’s largest banks are covered bank-by-bank in the EBA EU-wide transparency data: capital, leverage and asset quality as the EBA published them →

Reading this profile

  • This page composes existing FinObservatory layers; it introduces no new data. Every figure is reproducible from the source cited in its section. See the methodology for the composition and each source’s coverage and staleness.
  • The layers stop at different dates: the World Bank GFDD depth and soundness series end 2021, but the IMF FSI soundness panel is current (annual through 2024–2025 where reported); the Global Findex inclusion series are surveyed in waves and reach 2024; the crisis chronologies end around 2016–2021; IMF debt runs to 2024; the Penn World Table runs 1950–2023; and the BIS statistics are the most current (credit through 2025, residential property to 2026Q1, and the policy rate and effective exchange rate into 2026 where reported). The external accounts reach 2025 (IMF balance-of-payments and reserves), 2024 (remittance inflows) and 2023 (capital-account openness). A quiet recent tail in one section can simply be where that source stops.
  • Sections are shown only where Ireland has data. An absent section means the underlying dataset does not cover this country, not that the value is zero.