Minister Ahern welcomes launch of Forfás International Trade and Investment Report

Key Findings

• Services exports continued to expand rapidly, particularly in computer, finance and insurance services. The importance of internationally traded services exports to the economy, measured as a percentage of GDP, now surpasses that of many other developed economies by a significant margin.

• While still extremely large by international standards, the merchandise trade surplus has been declining since 2002, reflecting slow export growth and a surge in imports. The rise in imports was driven by buoyant consumer demand and the reliance of Ireland on increasingly expensive imported fuels.

• The continuing evolution of the Irish economy is reflected in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. For the first time Ireland became a net investor overseas, as outward FDI rose to its highest ever level in 2004.

• Ireland is following the path of other high income developed economies by increasing its direct investments abroad, suggesting that Ireland is set to remain a net investor overseas in the coming years.

• Ireland still attracts a large share of global FDI inflows for its size. While our share fell significantly in 2004, this largely reflected changes in the financial operations of multinationals based here, rather than a reduction in new production facilities. In fact, the number of new IDA-supported jobs has been increasing steadily since 2003.