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International Accounts Q1 2020 Final

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	-0.444	2.367	-2.42	-0.498
Q2 2018	-0.385	2.925	-4.168	-1.628
Q3 2018	-0.437	3.308	-3.545	-0.674
Q4 2018	-0.676	3.267	-3.917	-1.326
Q1 2019	-1.755	3.087	-3.29	-1.957
Q2 2019	-0.736	3.447	-4.478	-1.767
Q3 2019	-0.948	3.835	-3.786	-0.899
Q4 2019	-1.326	3.974	-2.691	-0.043
Q1 2020	-1.117	3.319	-3.351	-1.15

Current account with UK (See Table 4.1)

Merchandise exports were €4,986m in the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of €154m compared with the first quarter of 2019.
Merchandise imports were €6,103m in the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of €792m compared with the first quarter of 2019.
Services exports at €8,271m increased by €473m compared to the first quarter of 2019, mainly due to computer, insurance and business services exports.
Service imports at €4,952m were up €241m over that same period in 2019. These figures were affected by increased levels of business and insurance costs.
Investment income earned in UK at €5,274m, decreased by €289m compared with one year earlier while investment income payable to UK investors at €8,640m decreased by €239m.
When these effects are combined, the trade balance with the UK has increased by €869m and net income outflows have increased by €61m, compared with the first quarter of 2019. The result is a current account balance deficit of €1,150m in the first quarter of 2020, a deficit reduction of €807m compared to the one of €1,957m in the first quarter of 2019.

We have also included a new experimental table on foreign direct investment with UK (See Table 4.2); this table shows that direct investment in Ireland from the UK has increased by €1,857m in the first quarter of 2020. Direct investment abroad from Ireland to the UK has decreased by €7m in the first quarter of 2020 mainly due to decreases in other capital and reinvesting earnings.

Table 4.1 Current Account with UK

Table 4.1 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	22,435	21,276	5,285	5,398	5,630	6,122	5,140	5,171	5,261	5,704	4,986
	Imports	24,377	26,041	5,729	5,783	6,067	6,798	6,895	5,907	6,209	7,030	6,103

of which: Merchanting (net export)	Exports	4,364	3,302	1,003	1,086	1,017	1,258	856	764	800	882	779

Services	Exports	30,330	34,896	6,820	7,410	7,963	8,137	7,798	8,504	8,972	9,622	8,271
	Imports	18,463	20,553	4,453	4,485	4,655	4,870	4,711	5,057	5,137	5,648	4,952
Transport	Exports	2,391	2,488	396	640	872	483	368	669	897	554	345
	Imports	565	590	136	136	139	154	155	137	140	158	144
Tourism and Travel²	Exports	1,029	1,027	220	272	302	235	209	264	316	238	179
	Imports	1,229	1,386	315	244	300	370	356	284	345	401	283
Insurance	Exports	2,460	1,980	643	607	588	622	487	474	489	530	552
	Imports	1,707	1,862	418	423	446	420	442	495	453	472	508
Financial services	Exports	5,737	6,745	1,483	1,442	1,419	1,393	1,653	1,602	1,666	1,824	1,475
	Imports	5,081	6,337	1,402	1,249	1,251	1,179	1,486	1,542	1,542	1,767	1,285
Royalties/Licences	Exports	371	460	81	74	55	161	95	94	109	162	77
	Imports	329	279	80	75	78	96	72	68	70	69	66
Computer services³	Exports	9,939	12,378	1,975	2,245	2,622	3,097	2,803	2,928	3,099	3,548	3,244
	Imports	201	176	56	40	45	60	36	42	47	51	21
Business services	Exports	4,663	5,114	1,060	1,161	1,173	1,269	1,225	1,261	1,236	1,392	1,288
	Imports	8,694	9,299	1,884	2,150	2,227	2,433	2,007	2,326	2,387	2,579	2,499
(of which: Operational leasing)	Exports	971	925	219	263	239	250	244	223	226	232	246
	Imports	162	157	39	*	42	*	*	*	*	38	*
Other	Exports	3,739	4,704	963	968	932	876	959	1,211	1,160	1,374	1,109
	Imports	654	623	163	167	168	156	156	161	153	153	145

Merchandise and Services Total	Exports	52,765	56,173	12,105	12,808	13,593	14,259	12,939	13,675	14,233	15,326	13,257
	Imports	42,840	46,595	10,183	10,268	10,721	11,668	11,606	10,964	11,346	12,679	11,055

Trade balance	Net	9,925	9,579	1,923	2,540	2,871	2,591	1,333	2,711	2,887	2,648	2,202

Primary Income	Inflows	18,920	24,972	4,339	5,091	5,172	4,318	5,619	6,573	6,556	6,224	5,330
	Outflows	33,174	39,361	6,808	9,310	8,769	8,287	8,960	11,082	10,373	8,946	8,718
(of which : Investment Income)	Inflows	18,695	24,748	4,283	5,036	5,114	4,262	5,563	6,517	6,500	6,168	5,274
	Outflows	32,861	39,042	6,731	9,232	8,691	8,207	8,879	11,003	10,294	8,866	8,640
Direct investment income	Inflows	2,621	1,733	514	686	763	658	80	753	775	125	-61
	Outflows	4,022	3,949	782	1,219	1,103	918	706	1,435	1,081	727	414
Portfolio investment income	Inflows	12,010	15,296	2,789	3,177	3,106	2,938	3,695	3,868	3,895	3,838	3,905
	Outflows	25,507	31,726	5,387	7,245	6,624	6,251	7,278	8,857	8,315	7,276	7,295
Other investment income	Inflows	4,065	7,718	981	1,173	1,245	666	1,787	1,896	1,830	2,205	1,430
	Outflows	3,334	3,368	562	769	965	1,038	895	711	899	863	932

Secondary Income	Inflows	1,929	1,120	534	505	414	476	286	261	291	282	537
	Outflows	1,725	976	485	454	362	424	235	230	260	251	500

Income balance	Net	-14,050	-14,245	-2,420	-4,168	-3,545	-3,917	-3,290	-4,478	-3,786	-2,691	-3,351

Current Account - Total	Inflows	73,614	82,264	16,979	18,404	19,178	19,053	18,843	20,509	21,080	21,832	19,124
	Outflows	77,739	86,930	17,476	20,032	19,852	20,379	20,800	22,276	21,979	21,875	20,273

Current Account Balance with UK	Net	-4,126	-4,666	-498	-1,628	-674	-1,326	-1,957	-1,767	-899	-43	-1,150
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 4.1 (XLS 16KB)

Table 4.2 Foreign Direct Investment with UK

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Table 4.2 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	3,966	6,411	-636	1,369	1,296	1,937	5,553	1,409	-1,539	988	-7
	In Ireland	-23,060	-9,824	-5,623	3	-1,613	-15,827	4,022	3,815	-6,526	-11,135	1,857

Equity	Abroad	555	3,846	-1,683	1,461	532	245	4,862	138	-1,907	753	675
	In Ireland	-9,852	*	*	-570	-1,038	*	1,716	-1,437	541	*	1,032
Reinvested Earnings	Abroad	2,081	1,460	480	312	699	590	-34	732	683	79	-166
	In Ireland	2,145	2,588	273	825	535	512	303	1,174	836	275	-98
Other Capital	Abroad	1,330	1,105	567	-404	65	1,102	725	539	-315	156	-516
	In Ireland	-15,353	*	*	-252	-1,110	*	2,003	4,077	-7,903	*	924
¹For 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 Final

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 4.1)

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