13/6/2014: January-April Trade in Goods: Ireland

Some quick stats on trade in goods data out today:

First up: aggregates:

Core points:

1. Aggregate exports are down once again in 2014: off 1.8% for the period January-April
2. Much of this is down to pharma and organic chemicals, but declines overall were registered in 4 out of 9 categories, while four categories posted increases in exports.
3. Trade surplus declined again, this time by 11.1%. Trade surplus dropped y/y in 6 out of 9 categories.
4. Trade surplus dropped by a total of EUR1.357 billion, while exports declined by EUR527 million.
5. The summary of sectoral contributions is provided below

Geographic breakdown of changes in exports and trade surplus is provided in the table below:

The above shows geographically wide-ranging declines in exports and trade surplus.

22/05/11: Ireland and BRICs - Trade flows

Just run thought the figures for external trade (goods) for February 2011 and updated my files for bilateral trade with Russia and BRICs overall. Here are the core results:
Bilateral trade with Russia is booming and the trade balance surplus is heading for historical highs, as I have predicted in a recent interviews with Rossijskaja Gazeta (here) and Voice of Russia (here).
Here's the chart:

Note that Irish trade authorities have been stressing -as strategic objective - development of trade with the BRICs. In particular, China has been a major target for Irish trade promotion and development agencies, well ahead of Brazil, India and Russia. You'd expect China to be net importer of Irish goods for suhc attention to be paid to the country. Take a look:
It turns out that our policy has been targeting the country that runs a massive trade surplus against Ireland. In other words, our imports from China are vastly in excess of our exports to China. In the mean time, Russia - which generates consistent trade surpluses for Ireland - is largely untouched by the Government agencies, when compared to China.

Here are the cumulative surpluses from our trade with Russia since 2004: