Latest Figures Show Trade Surplus At A Healthy 2.5 Billion Euro

This increased the monthly merchandise trade surplus by €572m to €2.5bn. Ireland's services exports increased by 14% on 2005, whereas Imports increased by 9%, narrowing the annual deficit on Services Trade by almost €2bn to 7.4bn.

The CSO's figures also show that the United States now accounts for 15% of services exports, having increased by 127% on 2005.

Minister for Trade and Commerce John McGuinness, T.D., warmly welcomed the results, saying that trends in emerging and distant markets were very positive with services exports to Asia overall, up by 16%, and exports to Japan growing by 35%. Exports to Brazil grew by 29% and to Australia by 34%.

The categories of services exports which showed significant growth included Insurance, Financial Services and Computer Services.

The Minister said that these trends reflect the strengths of our knowledge-based economy where "we have a competitive advantage in key value-added sectors."

Mr. McGuinness also expressed his satisfaction with the raw figures released by the CSO, which show that exports for the period from January to September, increased by 4% when compared to the same period in 2006. This compared to an increase of 2% in Imports for the same period.

Minister McGuinness also noted the good performance in terms of exports to Asia, with merchandise exports to China and Hong Kong increasing significantly by 35%, and the Philippines by 130%.

The Minister said he was also "heartened" by the performance of exports to Great Britain, Ireland's oldest trading partner, which showed an 8% increase.