Balance Of Trade In Goods Up 14% In 2008

Minister for Trade and Commerce, John McGuinness, T.D., expressed a cautious welcome for the latest merchandise trade statistics released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and services trade figures, which were released on Friday.

The figures show that Irish merchandise exports, at €86.218 billion, were down by 3% compared with 2007, but Services exports at €67.59 billion, were up by a similar rate i.e. 3%. Total exports (merchandise and services) for 2008 were €153.808 billion which represents a negligible fall of less than 1% on levels for 2007.

The Minister said, "The figures are indeed encouraging and represent an impressive performance by exporters in very challenging economic circumstances.

"Despite turmoil in world markets and adverse exchange rate difficulties between the Euro and both the US$ and £Sterling, which increases the cost of our exports to the USA and UK, the fact that our export figures have held virtually steady, is indeed admirable."

Minister McGuinness welcomed several very positive trends in the latest data. The proportion of Services Exports of total exports continues to rise, now being 44%, which reflects the growing importance of the knowledge-based industries.

Merchandise exports of Scientific equipment (up 32%), Chemicals (up 31%), Pharmaceuticals (up 13%) and services exports of Computer Services (up 9%), represented significant progress in these key sectors.

In addition, the success of the Government's commitment to develop new export markets, especially in Asia, is reflected in the spectacular growth of merchandise exports to China (up 17%) and Malaysia (up 53%), while exports to the USA, despite the exchange rate difficulties, were up 5%.