You are here: Home / Statistics / International Accounts Q2 2020 / Goods and Services

International Accounts Q2 2020

Goods and Services

Open in Excel:

Trade balance of €32.6bn in Q2 2020

Ireland’s trade balance at €32.6bn, all goods and services exports less all goods and services imports, increased by €43.4bn in the second quarter of 2020 over the same period in 2019, due to a decreased services balance.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q1 2018	50.317	33.835
Q2 2018	52.513	35.542
Q3 2018	52.634	34.146
Q4 2018	55.98	37.071
Q1 2019	56.499	37.559
Q2 2019	54.444	38.511
Q3 2019	57.406	37.63
Q4 2019	59.148	38.979
Q1 2020	59.452	42.339
Q2 2020	55.997	38.322

Merchandise exports were €56bn in the second quarter of 2020, an increase of €1.6bn compared with the same quarter of 2019.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q1 2018	21.905	19.49
Q2 2018	24.469	21.245
Q3 2018	25.376	22.525
Q4 2018	30.562	25.929
Q1 2019	26.275	21.203
Q2 2019	26.344	21.364
Q3 2019	25.802	21.093
Q4 2019	29.951	24.042
Q1 2020	25.043	21.183
Q2 2020	22.622	18.409

Merchandise imports were €22.6bn in the second quarter of 2020, a decrease of €3.7bn compared with the same period in 2019.

	Q2 2020	Q2 2019
Computer Services	29.958	28.73
Business Services	9.247	10.653
Financial Services	4.065	4.067
Insurance	2.54	2.418
Other Services n.e.s	2.401	1.725
Royalties/Licences	2.251	2.654
Repairs and Processing	0.745	0.621
Transport	0.299	2.189
Tourism and Travel	0.168	1.621
Communications	0.063	0.09

Service exports, at €51.7bn, decreased by €3bn compared to the second quarter of 2020, mainly due to lower Transport and Tourism & Travel services exports (which decreased by €1,890m and €1,453m respectively).

	Q2 2020	Q2 2019
Business Services	24.02	62.144
Royalties/Licences	18.058	20.432
Financial Services	3.942	3.7
Insurance	2.178	1.993
Repairs and Processing	1.944	1.405
Computer Services	1.34	1.057
Transport	0.695	0.801
Other Services n.e.s	0.212	0.205
Communications	0.07	0.113
Tourism and Travel	0.066	1.851

Service imports, at €52.5bn, were down €41.2bn compared to the second quarter of 2020, mainly due to decreased R&D related intellectual property imports.

	Royalties/Licences Exports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q1 2018	2.626	0.114	1.574
Q2 2018	3.388	0.099	1.947
Q3 2018	3.116	0.097	1.585
Q4 2018	3.02	0.093	1.206
Q1 2019	2.105	0.038	1.052
Q2 2019	2.654	0.039	1.252
Q3 2019	2.688	0.033	1.238
Q4 2019	3.167	0.033	1.246
Q1 2020	1.985	0.013	1.036
Q2 2020	2.251	0.045	1.056

	Royalties/Licences Imports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q1 2018	16.453	3.789	8.859
Q2 2018	18.051	4.521	9.864
Q3 2018	18.064	3.954	10.26
Q4 2018	19.926	4.292	11.749
Q1 2019	18.689	4.323	11.104
Q2 2019	20.432	5.846	11.67
Q3 2019	21.254	5.264	0
Q4 2019	23.885	5.455	0
Q1 2020	18.727	2.884	0
Q2 2020	18.058	3.462	0

Please note: The Q3 2019, Q4 2019, Q1 2020 and Q2 2020 figures for royalties/licences imports of which information and communication are suppressed due to confidentiality requirements.

Royalties/licences imports were €18.1bn in the second quarter of 2020, down €2,374m on the same period in 2019.

Table 2.1 Breakdown of Merchandise Exports and Imports

Table 2.2 Breakdown of Services Exports and Imports

Table 2.2 Breakdown of Services Exports and Imports									€ million
		2018	2019	2019				2020
Item				Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2
Services	Exports	188,454	221,370	48,280	54,768	55,723	62,599	52,712	51,737
	Imports	204,799	296,702	48,359	93,699	54,727	99,917	80,868	52,525
Repairs and Processing	Exports	1,899	2,477	597	621	588	671	641	745
	Imports	5,428	6,603	1,637	1,405	1,479	2,082	1,601	1,944
Transport	Exports	7,746	8,041	1,151	2,189	2,961	1,740	1,085	299
	Imports	3,065	3,281	792	801	795	893	748	695
Tourism and Travel¹	Exports	5,760	5,739	952	1,621	1,941	1,225	769	168
	Imports	6,399	7,288	1,454	1,851	2,418	1,565	1,227	66
Insurance	Exports	9,535	9,905	2,361	2,418	2,440	2,686	2,656	2,540
	Imports	7,983	8,141	2,178	1,993	2,097	1,873	2,361	2,178
Financial services	Exports	15,354	16,867	4,053	4,067	4,198	4,549	3,667	4,065
	Imports	13,924	15,501	3,669	3,700	3,845	4,287	3,633	3,942
Royalties/Licences	Exports	12,150	10,614	2,105	2,654	2,688	3,167	1,985	2,251
	Imports	72,494	84,260	18,689	20,432	21,254	23,885	18,727	18,058
of which: Pharmaceutical products and preparations	Exports	403	143	38	39	33	33	13	45
	Imports	16,556	20,888	4,323	5,846	5,264	5,455	2,884	3,462
Information and communication	Exports	6,312	4,788	1,052	1,252	1,238	1,246	1,036	1,056
	Imports	40,732	50,650	11,104	11,670	*	*	*	*
Communications	Exports	411	336	91	90	82	73	71	63
	Imports	571	456	128	113	116	99	59	70
Computer services²	Exports	93,075	117,099	26,085	28,730	28,433	33,851	30,441	29,958
	Imports	5,344	4,540	1,067	1,057	1,197	1,219	1,199	1,340
Business services	Exports	36,638	43,792	10,135	10,653	10,739	12,265	10,317	9,247
	Imports	88,826	165,812	18,544	62,144	21,321	63,803	51,097	24,020
Research and development	Exports	3,130	5,041	1,077	1,067	1,159	1,738	1,336	991
	Imports	37,443	105,081	4,687	47,665	7,001	45,728	*	8,360
of which: IP related	Exports	740	622	85	13	*	*	*	7
	Imports	19,757	84,059	466	*	1,202	*	*	1,786
Operational leasing	Exports	15,405	16,400	3,942	4,122	4,121	4,215	4,169	3,770
	Imports	1,034	967	241	243	245	238	208	206
Misc. business services³	Exports	18,103	22,351	5,115	5,464	5,460	6,312	4,813	4,486
	Imports	50,349	59,764	13,616	14,236	14,075	17,837	*	15,455
Other services n.e.s.	Exports	5,886	6,501	751	1,725	1,654	2,371	1,078	2,401
	Imports	762	819	200	205	204	210	216	212
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 Q2 2020 Table 2.2 (XLS 13KB)

Visit Table BPQ19 on PxStat

Next Chapter >> Accounts with the UK

Why you can Trust the CSO

Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.

go to trust & transparency

Table 2.1 Breakdown of Merchandise Exports and Imports									€ million
		2018	2019	2019				2020
Item				Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2
Current Account
Merchandise¹	Exports	211,444	227,497	56,499	54,444	57,406	59,148	59,452	55,997
	Imports	102,312	108,372	26,275	26,344	25,802	29,951	25,043	22,622

International trade	Exports	140,594	152,679	37,559	38,511	37,630	38,979	42,339	38,322
	Imports	89,189	87,702	21,203	21,364	21,093	24,042	21,183	18,409
Goods for processing	Exports	63,895	68,468	16,911	13,966	18,678	18,913	14,596	15,924
	Imports	10,215	16,769	4,015	4,145	3,505	5,104	3,104	3,884
Other conceptual adjustments	Exports	-3,640	-7,128	-599	-1,059	-2,477	-2,993	-761	-1,220
	Imports	2,907	3,900	1,056	835	1,204	805	755	329
Merchanting (net export)	Exports	10,596	13,477	2,627	3,026	3,575	4,249	3,277	2,971
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.

International Accounts Q2 2020

Goods and Services

Goods and Services

Trade balance of €32.6bn in Q2 2020

Contents

Why you can Trust the CSO

Contact:

Links:

Careers

Follow: