Minister McGuinness welcomes latest services trade figures

Minister for Trade and Commerce, Mr. John McGuinness, T.D., today (Thursday 18^th December 2008) expressed satisfaction with the latest services trade statistics for the third quarter of 2008, released by the Central Statistics Office. Services exports for the first nine months of this year represent an increase of 3 % on the same 9-month period of 2007, despite the global downturn which has severely impacted on trade generally.

The Minister said: “The figures are indeed encouraging and represent a strong performance by exporters in more challenging economic circumstances”. The Minister went on to welcome the impressive increase of 9% in our exports of Computer Services during that period. A significant fall in services imports for the most recent quarter has resulted in a reduced services trade deficit - the lowest recorded. Given our very strong surplus on merchandise trade, this continued reduction in the services trade deficit will further enhance our overall trade surplus.

Minister McGuinness was particularly pleased to note that the more detailed additional statistics published by the CSO today, giving country-specific services trade data for 2007, revealed significant increases in services exports to key high-growth target markets over those for the previous year. Our services exports to China and Russia more than doubled and they have increased by over 78% to the United Arab Emirates, by 77% to Taiwan, by 56% to Saudi Arabia, by 48% to India and by 43% to Singapore. In relation to our more traditional markets, services exports increased by 37% to the Netherlands by 36% to France, by 22% to Belgium, by 13% to the UK and by 12% to Germany.

ENDS/TC350