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International Accounts Q1 2022 Final

Goods and Services

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Trade balance of €53.2bn in Q1 2022

Ireland’s trade balance at €53.2bn, all goods and services exports less all goods and services imports, increased by €5.7bn in the first quarter of 2022 over the same period in 2021, due to increased Merchandise exports and Computer services exports.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q4 2019	58.823	38.789
Q1 2020	60.99	44.224
Q2 2020	56.753	37.865
Q3 2020	61.252	40.543
Q4 2020	63.384	39.499
Q1 2021	67.641	40.353
Q2 2021	67.679	40.586
Q3 2021	71.697	41.079
Q4 2021	72.343	43.236
Q1 2022	78.473	52.257

Merchandise exports were €78.5bn in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of €10.8bn compared with the same quarter of 2021.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q4 2019	29.635	24.01
Q1 2020	24.851	20.894
Q2 2020	22.487	17.714
Q3 2020	23.787	20.028
Q4 2020	29.041	24.992
Q1 2021	25.583	21.397
Q2 2021	27.542	25.839
Q3 2021	26.874	22.962
Q4 2021	32.051	28.476
Q1 2022	30.688	27.941

Merchandise imports were €30.7bn in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of €5.1bn compared with the same period in 2021.

	Q1 2022	Q1 2021
Computer Services	45.818	37.464
Business Services	14.719	10.404
Financial Services	4.981	5.507
Royalties/Licences	3.882	3.223
Insurance	3.558	3.251
Other Services n.e.s	2.789	2.597
Transport	0.81	0.167
Tourism and Travel	0.806	0.35
Repairs and Processing	0.534	0.364
Communications	0.059	0.058

Service exports, at €78bn, increased by €14.6bn compared to the first quarter of 2021, mainly due to higher Computer services exports and business services exports (which increased by €8.3bn and €4.3bn respectively).

	Q1 2022	Q1 2021
Royalties/Licences	28.857	22.529
Business Services	28.167	22.571
Financial Services	4.647	4.62
Insurance	3.375	2.593
Computer Services	2.387	1.788
Repairs and Processing	2.158	1.978
Transport	1.235	1.09
Tourism and Travel	1.001	0.131
Other Services n.e.s	0.491	0.416
Communications	0.196	0.179

Service imports, at €72.5bn, were up €14.6bn compared to the first quarter of 2021, mainly due to higher Royalties/licences imports (which increased by €6.3bn) and higher Business services imports.

	Royalties/Licences Exports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q4 2019	3.143	0.033	1.253
Q1 2020	2.631	0.017	1.655
Q2 2020	2.753	0.037	1.614
Q3 2020	2.913	0.028	1.662
Q4 2020	4.423	0.052	2.953
Q1 2021	3.223	0.032	1.98
Q2 2021	3.515	0.038	2.227
Q3 2021	3.677	0.03	2.244
Q4 2021	5.029	0.057	3.204
Q1 2022	3.882	0.036	2.351

	Royalties/Licences Imports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q4 2019	24.433	5.873	0
Q1 2020	18.863	2.829	0
Q2 2020	18.517	3.749	12.489
Q3 2020	16.216	2.93	10.931
Q4 2020	30.745	4.893	0
Q1 2021	22.529	2.919	0
Q2 2021	26.42	4.824	0
Q3 2021	27.664	3.654	0
Q4 2021	36.205	6.855	0
Q1 2022	28.857	4.008	0

Please note: The figures for royalties/licences imports of which information and communication are supressed due to confidentiality requirements.

Royalties/licences imports were €28.9bn in the first quarter of 2022, up €6.3bn on the same period in 2021.

Table 3.1 Breakdown of Merchandise Exports and Imports

Table 3.2 Breakdown of Services Exports and Imports

Table 3.2 Breakdown of Services Exports and Imports												€ million
		2020	2021	2020				2021				2022
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1
Services	Exports	254,749	293,629	57,484	56,676	59,696	80,893	63,385	70,835	74,001	85,408	77,956
	Imports	326,465	293,053	117,360	56,287	57,194	95,624	57,895	65,632	68,855	100,671	72,514
Repairs and Processing	Exports	1,991	1,718	469	524	502	496	364	373	404	577	534
	Imports	7,361	8,189	1,526	1,870	1,582	2,383	1,978	1,824	1,836	2,551	2,158
Transport	Exports	2,607	2,656	1,103	317	813	374	167	305	1,234	950	810
	Imports	4,088	4,756	995	984	944	1,165	1,090	1,098	1,180	1,388	1,235
Tourism and Travel¹	Exports	2,095	2,272	1,068	224	376	427	350	297	715	910	806
	Imports	2,263	2,166	1,470	90	447	256	131	182	860	993	1,001
Insurance	Exports	11,415	13,681	2,808	2,685	2,756	3,166	3,251	3,261	3,439	3,730	3,558
	Imports	9,401	10,568	2,497	2,317	2,091	2,496	2,593	2,797	2,526	2,652	3,375
Financial services	Exports	19,437	22,153	3,959	4,440	5,054	5,984	5,507	5,713	5,681	5,252	4,981
	Imports	17,235	19,040	3,690	4,080	4,340	5,125	4,620	4,853	4,816	4,751	4,647
Royalties/Licences	Exports	12,720	15,444	2,631	2,753	2,913	4,423	3,223	3,515	3,677	5,029	3,882
	Imports	84,341	112,818	18,863	18,517	16,216	30,745	22,529	26,420	27,664	36,205	28,857
of which: Pharmaceutical products and preparations	Exports	134	157	17	37	28	52	32	38	30	57	36
	Imports	14,401	18,252	2,829	3,749	2,930	4,893	2,919	4,824	3,654	6,855	4,008
Information and communication	Exports	7,884	9,655	1,655	1,614	1,662	2,953	1,980	2,227	2,244	3,204	2,351
	Imports	57,320	80,386	*	12,489	10,931	*	*	*	*	*	*
Communications	Exports	247	237	68	60	60	59	58	60	60	59	59
	Imports	680	750	167	175	166	172	179	188	193	190	196
Computer services²	Exports	137,415	172,856	31,441	31,374	32,667	41,933	37,464	42,044	42,611	50,737	45,818
	Imports	8,342	8,342	1,978	2,152	2,048	2,164	1,788	2,113	2,118	2,323	2,387
Business services	Exports	56,768	49,858	12,697	11,615	12,227	20,229	10,404	12,071	13,304	14,079	14,719
	Imports	191,063	124,506	85,743	25,739	28,921	50,660	22,571	25,691	27,169	49,075	28,167
Research and development	Exports	17,665	6,300	2,365	2,182	2,482	10,636	1,157	1,435	1,695	2,013	1,166
	Imports	122,478	45,993	*	9,391	12,412	*	6,419	7,167	8,099	24,308	8,392
of which: IP related	Exports	13,109	1,297	*	*	1,459	8,957	216	337	535	209	101
	Imports	97,690	18,286	*	2,577	*	*	758	644	*	*	881
Operational leasing	Exports	17,638	16,888	4,870	4,607	4,149	4,012	4,056	4,206	4,285	4,341	4,360
	Imports	1,061	1,687	260	261	266	274	375	410	419	483	429
Misc. business services³	Exports	21,464	26,670	5,461	4,826	5,596	5,581	5,191	6,429	7,325	7,725	9,193
	Imports	67,523	76,826	*	16,087	16,242	*	15,777	18,114	18,650	24,285	19,346
Other services n.e.s.	Exports	10,055	12,754	1,241	2,684	2,328	3,802	2,597	3,196	2,875	4,086	2,789
	Imports	1,692	1,919	432	362	439	459	416	466	493	544	491
¹Under the credit item, passenger fare receipts of resident carriers from foreign visitors are excluded; such receipts are included under transport credits - see Background Notes.
²Covers exports and imports of software that were not incorporated as part of computer hardware or physical media but separately transmitted by electronic means. The value of sales and purchases of additional software licences is also included.
³Covers mainly advertising and inter-affiliate management charges.

Open in Excel: International Accounts Q1 2022 Table 3.2 (XLS 14KB)

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Table 3.1 Breakdown of Merchandise Exports and Imports												€ million
		2020	2021	2020				2021				2022
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1
Current Account
Merchandise¹	Exports	242,379	279,360	60,990	56,753	61,252	63,384	67,641	67,679	71,697	72,343	78,473
	Imports	100,166	112,050	24,851	22,487	23,787	29,041	25,583	27,542	26,874	32,051	30,688

International trade	Exports	162,131	165,254	44,224	37,865	40,543	39,499	40,353	40,586	41,079	43,236	52,257
	Imports	83,628	98,674	20,894	17,714	20,028	24,992	21,397	25,839	22,962	28,476	27,941
Goods for processing	Exports	69,852	100,928	14,434	16,235	17,556	21,627	23,144	22,174	25,080	30,530	18,619
	Imports	9,191	9,597	2,163	3,271	1,949	1,808	2,205	1,777	3,116	2,499	1,703
Other conceptual adjustments	Exports	-3,092	-10,293	-793	-438	-143	-1,718	-235	-2,652	-1,591	-5,815	-1,276
	Imports	7,347	3,778	1,793	1,502	1,811	2,241	1,981	-75	796	1,076	1,045
Merchanting (net export)	Exports	13,489	23,472	3,125	3,091	3,296	3,977	4,380	7,571	7,129	4,392	8,874
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.

International Accounts Q1 2022 Final

Goods and Services

Goods and Services

Trade balance of €53.2bn in Q1 2022

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