TRADE GROWTH HIGHLIGHTS OUR CONTINUING ECONOMIC BOOM - KITT

Tom Kitt T.D., Minister for Trade, today (Thursday 2 March 2000) described the trade performance for the first ten months of 1999 as "very impressive indeed". The Minister was commenting on the January to October 1999 trade figures which were released today by the Central Statistics Office. The value of merchandise exports for the period January to October 1999 totalled over £42 billion, an increase of 14% over the same period in 1998. The trade surplus for January to October 1999 totalled £14.5 billion, a 29% increase over the same period in 1998.

Merchandise exports for the month of October 1999 totalled nearly £4.6 billion, an increase of 18% on October 1998, with the trade surplus for October 1999 totalling £1.4 billion, an increase of 17% on October 1998.

Markets showing particularly strong growth for exports for the first ten months of 1999 included UK, Netherlands, Italy and France. Merchandise exports showing very strong growth included computers, telecommunications equipment, electrical apparatus and chemicals.

In addition, provisional trade figures for 1999 for exports to non-EU countries increased by 27% in 1999 to total £17.8 billion. Minister Kitt noted that the provisional trade figures for 1999 indicate that exports to the US increased by 32% to total £8 billion, this follows a 53% increase in 1998, and once again represents the highest level of exports ever recorded by Ireland to the US. The US is now our second largest export market and supplier of merchandise imports. The US, followed by Japan, Switzerland, Malaysia, Norway, Australia, Singapore and the Philippines are our largest non-EU markets. Exports to Malaysia, in particular, experienced a very large increase of 152%. This excellent trade performance in Asian markets reflects the recovery of the Asian economies following the Asian crisis in 1998 which saw a slowdown in the rate of growth of exports to Asia in 1998.