Minister Mc Guinness welcomes latest trade figures

Minister for Trade and Commerce, Mr. John McGuinness, T.D., expressed satisfaction with the latest trade statistics released today by the CSO. The figures show that exports for January - 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, was pleased to note 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 was also heartened by the performance of exports to Great Britain, our oldest trading partner, which showed an 8% increase.

Preliminary estimates for October 2007 show that exports increased by 9% relative to September while imports rose by 1%. This increased the monthly merchandise trade surplus by €572m to €2.5bn.

Minister McGuinness also warmly welcomed the latest trend in Ireland’s Services Trade for 2006, details of which were also released today. 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 United States now accounts for 15% of services exports, having increased by 127% on 2005. The Minister said trends in emerging and distant markets were very positive with services exports to Asia overall, up by 16% , with 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..

ENDS/TC311