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International Accounts Q1 2023 Final

Goods and Services

Trade balance of €55.2bn in Quarter 1 2023

Online ISSN: 2565-6384

CSO statistical publication, 14 July 2023, 11am

Ireland’s trade balance at €55.2bn, all goods and services exports less all goods and services imports, increased by €1.9bn in the first quarter of 2023 over the same period in 2022, mainly due to increased contract manufacturing exports and computer service exports which were offset by increased royalty imports.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q4 2020	63.463	39.499
Q1 2021	67.573	40.353
Q2 2021	67.62	40.586
Q3 2021	71.836	41.141
Q4 2021	73.712	43.636
Q1 2022	78.365	52.203
Q2 2022	85.341	52.868
Q3 2022	94.971	53.698
Q4 2022	95.752	49.68
Q1 2023	88.977	50.868

Merchandise exports were €89bn in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of €10.6bn compared with the same quarter of 2022.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q4 2020	29.041	24.992
Q1 2021	25.379	21.397
Q2 2021	27.698	25.839
Q3 2021	26.794	23.052
Q4 2021	32.369	29.261
Q1 2022	32.104	29.222
Q2 2022	37.404	35.813
Q3 2022	41.387	38.162
Q4 2022	41.251	35.621
Q1 2023	32.984	32.11

Merchandise imports were €33bn in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of €0.9bn compared with the same period in 2022.

	Q1 2023	Q1 2022
Computer Services	49.636	45.52
Business Services	13.761	15.61
Financial Services	5.244	5.606
Insurance	3.928	3.7
Royalties/Licences	3.779	3.458
Other Services n.e.s	3.181	2.334
Transport	1.634	0.872
Tourism and Travel	1.283	0.736
Repairs and Processing	0.711	0.585
Communications	0.038	0.04

Service exports, at €83.2bn, increased by €4.7bn compared to the first quarter of 2022, mainly due to higher computer services exports (which increased by €4.1bn) and higher transport and travel services exports (which increased by €0.8bn and €0.5bn).

	Q1 2023	Q1 2022
Royalties/Licences	37.081	29.032
Business Services	29.716	26.605
Financial Services	4.598	5.09
Insurance	3.536	3.602
Repairs and Processing	3.213	2.302
Computer Services	2.16	2.029
Tourism and Travel	1.781	0.864
Transport	1.218	1.302
Other Services n.e.s	0.559	0.51
Communications	0.158	0.159

Service imports, at €84bn, were up €12.5bn compared to the first quarter of 2022, mainly due to increased royalty and business service imports (which grew by €8bn and €3.1bn).

	Royalties/Licences Exports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q4 2020	4.423	0.052	2.953
Q1 2021	3.221	0.033	1.981
Q2 2021	3.513	0.038	2.227
Q3 2021	3.675	0.03	2.245
Q4 2021	5.097	0.058	3.243
Q1 2022	3.458	0.063	2.333
Q2 2022	3.494	0.069	1.905
Q3 2022	3.033	0.038	0
Q4 2022	4.143	0.056	0
Q1 2023	3.779	0.042	1.103

	Royalties/Licences Imports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q4 2020	30.745	4.893	0
Q1 2021	22.739	3.14	0
Q2 2021	26.412	4.825	0
Q3 2021	27.647	3.655	0
Q4 2021	36.366	6.856	0
Q1 2022	29.032	3.969	0
Q2 2022	32.601	7.859	0
Q3 2022	32.891	7.823	0
Q4 2022	41.424	11.288	0
Q1 2023	37.081	6.063	0

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

Royalties/licences imports were €37.1bn in the first quarter of 2023, up €8bn on the same period in 2022.

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
			2021	2022	2021				2022				2023
Item			Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1
Services		Exports	299,781	339,622	64,350	72,097	75,206	88,128	78,462	83,185	86,488	91,487	83,194
		Imports	294,332	339,857	58,354	65,985	69,094	100,899	71,495	81,940	88,506	97,916	84,019
	Repairs and Processing	Exports	1,720	2,635	359	370	400	591	585	541	755	754	711
		Imports	8,190	11,165	1,976	1,822	1,838	2,554	2,302	2,560	2,702	3,601	3,213
	Transport	Exports	2,894	7,795	227	364	1,294	1,009	872	1,932	3,206	1,785	1,634
		Imports	4,751	6,066	1,075	1,094	1,180	1,402	1,302	1,514	1,733	1,517	1,218
	Tourism and Travel¹	Exports	2,273	6,686	350	297	716	910	736	1,884	2,471	1,595	1,283
		Imports	2,166	8,054	131	182	860	993	864	2,124	3,162	1,904	1,781
	Insurance	Exports	13,339	14,825	3,166	3,176	3,353	3,644	3,700	3,738	3,603	3,784	3,928
		Imports	10,354	14,172	2,531	2,735	2,487	2,601	3,602	3,551	3,526	3,493	3,536
	Financial services	Exports	23,195	21,836	5,519	5,831	5,792	6,053	5,606	5,424	5,517	5,289	5,244
		Imports	20,698	19,808	4,993	5,237	5,202	5,266	5,090	4,953	4,900	4,865	4,598
	Royalties/Licences	Exports	15,506	14,128	3,221	3,513	3,675	5,097	3,458	3,494	3,033	4,143	3,779
		Imports	113,164	135,948	22,739	26,412	27,647	36,366	29,032	32,601	32,891	41,424	37,081
	of which: Pharmaceutical products and preparations	Exports	159	226	33	38	30	58	63	69	38	56	42
		Imports	18,476	30,939	3,140	4,825	3,655	6,856	3,969	7,859	7,823	11,288	6,063
	Information and communication	Exports	9,696	7,339	1,981	2,227	2,245	3,243	2,333	1,905	*	*	1,103
		Imports	80,392	88,582	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
	Communications	Exports	237	158	58	60	60	59	40	41	38	39	38
		Imports	755	640	180	189	194	192	159	161	162	158	158
	Computer services²	Exports	173,750	195,719	37,581	42,245	42,770	51,154	45,520	48,871	48,812	52,516	49,636
		Imports	9,388	9,473	2,049	2,374	2,380	2,585	2,029	2,357	2,564	2,523	2,160
	Business services	Exports	54,075	63,786	11,273	13,056	14,278	15,468	15,610	14,404	17,116	16,656	13,761
		Imports	123,026	132,164	22,284	25,513	26,822	48,407	26,605	31,483	36,290	37,786	29,716
	Research and development	Exports	6,369	7,176	1,162	1,440	1,705	2,062	1,610	1,617	1,630	2,319	1,381
		Imports	45,821	45,133	6,201	7,168	8,101	24,351	8,115	10,327	13,033	13,658	7,946
	of which: IP related	Exports	1,327	1,764	221	342	545	219	555	*	*	513	8
		Imports	18,209	8,080	737	623	*	*	1,026	*	*	773	542
	Operational leasing	Exports	17,981	18,254	4,331	4,479	4,557	4,614	4,492	4,343	4,640	4,779	4,509
		Imports	1,596	1,695	352	388	396	460	388	404	445	458	383
	Misc. business services³	Exports	29,726	38,356	5,781	7,137	8,016	8,792	9,508	8,444	10,846	9,558	7,872
		Imports	75,610	85,336	15,732	17,957	18,325	23,596	18,102	20,752	22,812	23,670	21,387
	Other services n.e.s.	Exports	12,793	12,056	2,597	3,185	2,868	4,143	2,334	2,857	1,938	4,927	3,181
		Imports	1,840	2,365	396	426	484	534	510	636	575	644	559
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.

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Table 3.1 Breakdown of Merchandise Exports and Imports													€ million
			2021	2022	2021				2022				2023
Item			Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1
Current Account
Merchandise¹		Exports	280,741	354,429	67,573	67,620	71,836	73,712	78,365	85,341	94,971	95,752	88,977
		Imports	112,240	152,146	25,379	27,698	26,794	32,369	32,104	37,404	41,387	41,251	32,984

	International trade	Exports	165,716	208,449	40,353	40,586	41,141	43,636	52,203	52,868	53,698	49,680	50,868
		Imports	99,549	138,818	21,397	25,839	23,052	29,261	29,222	35,813	38,162	35,621	32,110
	Goods for processing	Exports	101,456	131,975	22,919	21,973	25,001	31,563	18,450	32,280	37,397	43,848	35,008
		Imports	9,021	8,273	2,093	1,677	3,061	2,190	1,971	-98	1,492	4,908	-25
	Other conceptual adjustments	Exports	-10,551	-10,093	-235	-2,652	-1,591	-6,073	-1,406	-2,227	-2,389	-4,071	-2,464
		Imports	3,670	5,055	1,890	182	681	917	911	1,689	1,733	722	898
	Merchanting (net export)	Exports	24,121	24,099	4,536	7,713	7,286	4,586	9,119	2,421	6,264	6,295	5,565
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.

International Accounts Q1 2023 Final

Goods and Services

Goods and Services

Trade balance of €55.2bn in Quarter 1 2023

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