Minister McGuinness welcomes latest trade figures

20^th March 2008

The 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 to December 2007, increased by 2% when compared to the same period in 2006. This compared to an increase of 2% in Imports for the same period. This increased the monthly merchandise trade surplus by €487m to €2.6bn.

Minister McGuinness was pleased to note the good performance in terms of exports to target countries under the Asia Strategy, with merchandise exports to China and Hong Kong increasing significantly by 30%, and the Philippines by 67%.

Minister McGuinness was heartened to see that exports in the key sectors of Organic chemicals and Pharmaceuticals rose by 7.5% and 2.4% respectively.

Minister McGuinness also warmly welcomed the latest trend in Ireland’s Services Trade for 2007, details of which were also released today. Ireland’s services exports increased by 17% on 2006, whereas Imports increased by 10%. This represents a 46.5% narrowing of the annual deficit on Services Trade to 3.5bn. Key areas included Computer Services up 20% and Trade Related Services up 25%.

ENDS/TC318