Ireland's external debt soared by almost €44 billion in the last quarter, new figures from the central Statistics Office (CSO) have shown.
The gross external debt, which includes general government, the monetary authority, financial and non-financial corporations, and households, soared to more than €911.6 billion in the three months to September 30th.
The latest figures show a continuing trend towards growing external debt. However, the CSO pointed out in its report that much of this debt can be offset by holdings of foreign financial assets by Irish residents.
Government gross external debt grew by almost half a billion euro, growing to €26.9 billion, fuelled by an increase in the holdings of Government long-term debt securities by non-residents.
Meanwhile, the CSO also revealed that Ireland's current account deficit fell in the third quarter. Despite showing a €381 million deficit, this figure was significantly lower than the negative balances in the previous two quarters, and was lower than that of the €532 million incurred in the third quarter of 2004.
However, the first nine months of 2005 saw an accumulated deficit of more than €2,991 million, an increase of €1.7 billion than the same period in 2004. This deficit was attributed to a fall-off in the merchandise surplus.