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International Accounts Q1 2020

Accounts with the UK

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Current account with UK shows deficit of €1.2bn in Quarter 1 2020

	Merchandise	Services	Income	Current Account
Q4 2017	-0.507	2.303	-2.065	-0.27
Q1 2018	-0.299	2.134	-2.407	-0.574
Q2 2018	-0.247	2.607	-4.186	-1.825
Q3 2018	-0.228	2.976	-3.414	-0.665
Q4 2018	-0.513	2.733	-4.277	-2.058
Q1 2019	-1.059	2.418	-2.921	-1.561
Q2 2019	-0.751	2.803	-4.401	-2.348
Q3 2019	-0.746	3.082	-4.072	-1.735
Q4 2019	-1.186	3.918	-2.213	0.519
Q1 2020	-1.117	3.31	-3.359	-1.166

Current account with UK (See Table 3.1)

Merchandise exports were €4,986m in the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of €554m compared with the first quarter of 2019.
Merchandise imports were €6,103m in the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of €496m compared with the first quarter of 2019.
Services exports at €8,246m increased by €1,016m compared to the first quarter of 2019, mainly due to computer and business services exports.
Service imports at €4,936m were up €124m over that same period in 2019. These figures were affected by increased levels of business and insurance costs.
Investment income earned in UK at €5,265m, increased by €199m compared with one year earlier while investment income payable to UK investors at €8,626m increased by €672m.
When these effects are combined, the trade balance with the UK has increased by €834m and net income outflows have increased by €438m, compared with the first quarter of 2019. The result is a current account of -€1,166m in the first quarter of 2020, compared to -€1,561m over the same period in 2019.

We have also included a new experimental table on foreign direct investment with UK (See Table 3.2); this table shows that direct investment in Ireland from the UK has increased by €1,853m in the first quarter of 2020. Direct investment abroad from Ireland to the UK has decreased by €93m in the first quarter of 2020 mainly due to decreases in other capital and reinvesting earnings.

Table 3.1 Current Account with UK

Table 3.1 Current Account with UK												€ million
		2018	2019	2018				2019				2020
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1
Current Account
Merchandise¹	Exports	23,051	22,106	5,429	5,536	5,769	6,317	5,540	5,400	5,353	5,813	4,986
	Imports	24,338	25,848	5,728	5,783	5,997	6,830	6,599	6,151	6,099	6,999	6,103

of which: Merchanting (net export)	Exports	4,863	3,635	1,129	1,213	1,143	1,378	913	841	877	1,004	779

Services	Exports	28,282	32,548	6,437	6,922	7,454	7,469	7,230	7,752	8,179	9,387	8,246
	Imports	17,832	20,327	4,303	4,315	4,478	4,736	4,812	4,949	5,097	5,469	4,936
Transport	Exports	2,390	2,469	395	640	872	483	368	665	891	545	345
	Imports	564	585	136	136	138	154	150	141	138	156	144
Tourism and Travel²	Exports	1,008	996	212	269	299	228	201	260	312	223	174
	Imports	1,158	1,310	289	235	290	344	326	274	335	375	267
Insurance	Exports	2,542	2,211	664	628	609	641	642	499	513	557	552
	Imports	1,724	1,871	421	428	450	425	446	501	456	468	508
Financial services	Exports	5,670	6,558	1,475	1,425	1,393	1,377	1,633	1,534	1,615	1,776	1,475
	Imports	4,535	5,958	1,135	1,152	1,137	1,111	1,433	1,414	1,457	1,654	1,285
Royalties/Licences	Exports	371	475	81	74	55	161	103	101	116	155	77
	Imports	330	288	82	78	81	89	67	73	75	73	65
Computer services³	Exports	8,296	10,969	1,652	1,821	2,242	2,581	2,347	2,439	2,573	3,610	3,244
	Imports	220	203	61	44	50	65	42	49	55	57	21
Business services	Exports	4,400	4,810	1,019	1,132	1,093	1,156	1,159	1,203	1,150	1,298	1,269
	Imports	8,706	9,533	2,033	2,093	2,182	2,398	2,196	2,351	2,440	2,546	2,500
(of which: Operational leasing)	Exports	728	873	162	200	178	188	230	214	218	211	227
	Imports	38	163	9	9	11	9	42	43	39	39	*
Other	Exports	3,603	4,061	939	932	891	841	777	1,052	1,008	1,224	1,109
	Imports	594	579	145	149	151	149	152	146	141	140	145

Merchandise and Services Total	Exports	51,333	54,656	11,866	12,459	13,223	13,785	12,770	13,153	13,533	15,200	13,232
	Imports	42,170	46,174	10,031	10,098	10,475	11,566	11,411	11,099	11,196	12,468	11,038

Trade balance	Net	9,163	8,481	1,835	2,361	2,748	2,219	1,359	2,053	2,337	2,732	2,193

Primary Income	Inflows	18,568	22,412	4,357	5,041	5,137	4,033	5,121	5,792	5,619	5,880	5,321
	Outflows	32,832	35,932	6,758	9,222	8,546	8,306	8,038	10,170	9,668	8,056	8,704
(of which : Investment Income)	Inflows	18,343	22,190	4,301	4,985	5,080	3,977	5,066	5,736	5,564	5,824	5,265
	Outflows	32,509	35,550	6,678	9,141	8,465	8,225	7,954	10,087	9,584	7,925	8,626
Direct investment income	Inflows	2,541	2,359	538	714	789	500	294	704	803	558	-70
	Outflows	3,987	3,733	748	1,204	1,081	954	667	1,402	1,073	591	399
Portfolio investment income	Inflows	11,938	13,546	2,783	3,142	3,086	2,927	3,245	3,491	3,451	3,359	3,905
	Outflows	25,238	29,229	5,368	7,176	6,438	6,256	6,583	8,171	7,806	6,669	7,295
Other investment income	Inflows	3,862	6,285	979	1,129	1,204	550	1,527	1,541	1,310	1,907	1,430
	Outflows	3,284	2,587	562	761	946	1,015	704	514	705	664	932

Secondary Income	Inflows	1,860	1,289	514	493	393	460	464	256	282	287	524
	Outflows	1,880	1,376	520	498	398	464	468	279	305	324	500

Income balance	Net	-14,284	-13,607	-2,407	-4,186	-3,414	-4,277	-2,921	-4,401	-4,072	-2,213	-3,359

Current Account - Total	Inflows	71,761	78,357	16,736	17,993	18,754	18,278	18,355	19,200	19,434	21,368	19,076
	Outflows	76,882	83,482	17,310	19,817	19,419	20,336	19,916	21,548	21,169	20,849	20,243

Current Account Balance with UK	Net	-5,122	-5,125	-574	-1,825	-665	-2,058	-1,561	-2,348	-1,735	519	-1,166
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.
²Under the credit item, passenger fare receipts of resident carriers from foreign visitors are excluded; such receipts are included under transport credits - see Background Notes.
³Covers 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.

Open in Excel: International Accounts Q1 2020 Table 3.1 (XLS 15KB)

Table 3.2 Foreign Direct Investment with UK

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Table 3.2 Foreign Direct investment with UK¹												€ million
		2018	2019	2018				2019				2020
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1

Direct Investment	Abroad	2,342	9,647	-799	1,169	1,140	832	6,791	1,367	180	1,309	-93
	In Ireland	-16,735	-9,949	-3,801	1,479	-91	-14,322	4,053	3,790	-6,609	-11,183	1,853

Equity	Abroad	-237	6,232	-1,870	1,279	346	8	5,699	24	-227	736	588
	In Ireland	-4,917	*	*	659	172	*	1,734	-1,519	480	*	1,032
Reinvested Earnings	Abroad	2,035	2,165	515	347	734	439	237	681	728	519	-166
	In Ireland	2,422	2,341	329	853	632	608	283	1,188	770	100	-104
Other Capital	Abroad	544	1,251	556	-457	61	384	854	662	-320	55	-516
	In Ireland	-14,241	*	*	-33	-896	*	2,036	4,122	-7,859	*	924
¹'For Direct Investment, a 'directional' categorisation is used: 'Abroad' 'indicates direct investment by Irish investors in British companies; 'British direct investment into Ireland is indicated by the heading 'In Ireland'.

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International Accounts Q1 2020

Accounts with the UK

Accounts with the UK

Current account with UK shows deficit of €1.2bn in Quarter 1 2020

Current account with UK (See Table 3.1)

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