Kitt Welcomes Ireland’s Trade Surplus For The First Half of 1999

Mr. Tom Kitt T.D., Minister for Labour, Trade and Consumer Affairs, today (4th November, 1999) welcomed the continuing strength of Ireland’s export performance as reflected in the January to June 1999 trade figures released today by the CSO.

The CSO figures show the value of merchandise exports for the period January to June 1999 at £24.4 billion, an increase of 12% over the same period in 1998. The trade surplus for January to June 1999 totalled £8.2 billion, a 35% increase over the same period last year.

The rate of export growth appears to have moderated (from 31% to 12%) compared with the same period in 1998, but in this regard it should be noted that the preliminary figures for July 1999 show exports reaching a new monthly record level of almost £4.6 billion. The Minister noted that this figure exceeded the value of exports achieved for the whole year of 1980.

Exports to the United States increased by 20% over the same period in 1998 to almost £3.6 billion. Minister Kitt noted that the US has now overtaken Germany as Ireland’s second largest individual export market. In addition, there were large increases in exports to the Netherlands, France, Finland and the United Kingdom.

Exports to some of the countries affected by the Asian economic crisis in 1998 including Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore showed strong signs of recovery during the first half of 1999. Exports to Malaysia in particular showed very strong growth, increasing by 265% or £244 million over the same period in 1998.

The export sectors showing the strongest growth were telecommunications equipment (+48%) organic chemicals (+18%) and computer equipment (+16%).