Irish Services Exports Thriving Despite Downturn

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

29 December 2008

New figures released by the Central Statistics Office, show that the Irish services exports industry has grown 3% against 2007 results.

John McGuiness, Minister for Trade and Commerce welcomed the impressive increase of 9% in Ireland’s exports of computer services during that period, saying:

“The figures are indeed encouraging and represent a strong performance by exporters in more challenging economic circumstances”. 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,” he added.

Minister McGuinness was particularly pleased to note that the more detailed additional statistics published by the CSO, 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. Ireland’s 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 Ireland’s 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.

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