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International Accounts Q1 2020 Final

Goods and Services

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Trade balance of €6.3bn in Q1 2020

Ireland’s trade balance at €6.3bn, all goods and services exports less all goods and services imports, decreased by €23.9bn in the first quarter of 2020 over the same period in 2019, due to a decreased services balance.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q4 2017	53.623	30.535
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

Merchandise exports were €59.4bn in the first quarter of 2020, an increase of €3bn compared with the same quarter of 2019.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q4 2017	22.9	21.03
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

Merchandise imports were €25bn in the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of €1.2bn compared with the same period in 2019.

	Q1 2020	Q1 2019
Computer Services	30.441	26.085
Business Services	10.317	10.135
Financial Services	3.667	4.053
Insurance	2.656	2.361
Royalties/Licences	1.985	2.105
Transport	1.085	1.151
Other Services n.e.s	1.078	0.751
Tourism and Travel	0.769	0.952
Repairs and Processing	0.641	0.597
Communications	0.071	0.091

Service exports, at €52.7bn, increased by €4.4bn compared to the first quarter of 2020, mainly due to higher computer services exports.

	Q1 2020	Q1 2019
Business Services	51.097	18.544
Royalties/Licences	18.727	18.689
Financial Services	3.633	3.669
Insurance	2.361	2.178
Repairs and Processing	1.601	1.637
Tourism and Travel	1.227	1.454
Computer Services	1.199	1.067
Transport	0.748	0.792
Other Services n.e.s	0.216	0.2
Communications	0.059	0.128

Service imports, at €80.9bn, were up €32.5bn compared to the first quarter of 2020, mainly due to higher intellectual property imports.

	Royalties/Licences Exports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q4 2017	2.872	0	1.069
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

Please note: The Q4 2017 figure for royalties/licences of which pharmaceutical exports is suppressed due to confidentiality requirements.

	Royalties/Licences Imports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q4 2017	17.869	4.163	10.05
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

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

Royalties/licences imports were €18.7bn in the first quarter of 2020, up €38m a marginal change on the same period in 2019.

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
		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
Services	Exports	188,454	221,370	41,416	45,858	47,937	53,243	48,280	54,768	55,723	62,599	52,712
	Imports	204,799	296,702	40,807	45,875	46,659	71,458	48,359	93,699	54,727	99,917	80,868
Repairs and Processing	Exports	1,899	2,477	439	463	430	567	597	621	588	671	641
	Imports	5,428	6,603	976	1,093	1,281	2,078	1,637	1,405	1,479	2,082	1,601
Transport	Exports	7,746	8,041	1,238	2,112	2,832	1,564	1,151	2,189	2,961	1,740	1,085
	Imports	3,065	3,281	664	716	742	943	792	801	795	893	748
Tourism and Travel¹	Exports	5,760	5,739	989	1,581	1,939	1,251	952	1,621	1,941	1,225	769
	Imports	6,399	7,288	1,239	1,585	2,110	1,465	1,454	1,851	2,418	1,565	1,227
Insurance	Exports	9,535	9,905	2,514	2,400	2,274	2,347	2,361	2,418	2,440	2,686	2,656
	Imports	7,983	8,141	2,125	2,012	1,911	1,935	2,178	1,993	2,097	1,873	2,361
Financial services	Exports	15,354	16,867	3,950	3,860	3,777	3,767	4,053	4,067	4,198	4,549	3,667
	Imports	13,924	15,501	3,556	3,494	3,458	3,416	3,669	3,700	3,845	4,287	3,633
Royalties/Licences	Exports	12,150	10,614	2,626	3,388	3,116	3,020	2,105	2,654	2,688	3,167	1,985
	Imports	72,494	84,260	16,453	18,051	18,064	19,926	18,689	20,432	21,254	23,885	18,727
of which: Pharmaceutical products and preparations	Exports	403	143	114	99	97	93	38	39	33	33	13
	Imports	16,556	20,888	3,789	4,521	3,954	4,292	4,323	5,846	5,264	5,455	2,884
Information and communication	Exports	6,312	4,788	1,574	1,947	1,585	1,206	1,052	1,252	1,238	1,246	1,036
	Imports	40,732	50,650	8,859	9,864	10,260	11,749	11,104	11,670	*	*	*
Communications	Exports	411	336	111	106	102	92	91	90	82	73	71
	Imports	571	456	139	139	145	148	128	113	116	99	59
Computer services²	Exports	93,075	117,099	20,030	21,984	22,890	28,171	26,085	28,730	28,433	33,851	30,441
	Imports	5,344	4,540	1,062	1,344	1,341	1,597	1,067	1,057	1,197	1,219	1,199
Business services	Exports	36,638	43,792	8,165	8,544	9,033	10,896	10,135	10,653	10,739	12,265	10,317
	Imports	88,826	165,812	14,404	17,251	17,416	39,755	18,544	62,144	21,321	63,803	51,097
Research and development	Exports	3,130	5,041	637	624	607	1,262	1,077	1,067	1,159	1,738	1,336
	Imports	37,443	105,081	3,603	4,457	4,938	24,445	4,687	47665	7,001	45,728	*
of which: IP related	Exports	740	622	92	*	45	*	85	13	*	*	*
	Imports	19,757	84,059	127	239	149	19242	466	*	1,202	*	*
Operational leasing	Exports	15,405	16,400	3,612	3,718	3,931	4,144	3,942	4,122	4,121	4,215	4,169
	Imports	1,034	967	242	248	276	268	241	243	245	238	208
Misc. business services³	Exports	18,103	22,351	3,916	4,202	4,494	5,491	5,115	5,464	5,460	6,312	4,813
	Imports	50,349	59,764	10,559	12,546	12,201	15,043	13,616	14,236	14,075	17,837	*
Other services n.e.s.	Exports	5,886	6,501	1,355	1,420	1,544	1,567	751	1,725	1,654	2,371	1,078
	Imports	762	819	188	189	191	194	200	205	204	210	216
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 2020 Table 3.2 (XLS 14KB)

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Table 3.1 Breakdown of Merchandise Exports and Imports												€ 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
Merchandise¹	Exports	211,444	227,497	50,317	52,513	52,634	55,980	56,499	54,444	57,406	59,148	59,452
	Imports	102,312	108,372	21,905	24,469	25,376	30,562	26,275	26,344	25,802	29,951	25,043

International trade	Exports	140,594	152,679	33,835	35,542	34,146	37,071	37,559	38,511	37,630	38,979	42,339
	Imports	89,189	87,702	19,490	21,245	22,525	25,929	21,203	21,364	21,093	24,042	21,183
Goods for processing	Exports	63,895	68,468	14,793	14,938	16,711	17,453	16,911	13,966	18,678	18,913	14,596
	Imports	10,215	16,769	1,936	2,417	2,127	3,735	4,015	4,145	3,505	5,104	3,104
Other conceptual adjustments	Exports	-3,640	-7,128	-849	-439	-700	-1,652	-599	-1,059	-2,477	-2,993	-761
	Imports	2,907	3,900	479	807	724	897	1,056	835	1,204	805	755
Merchanting (net export)	Exports	10,596	13,477	2,539	2,472	2,477	3,108	2,627	3,026	3,575	4,249	3,277
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.

International Accounts Q1 2020 Final

Goods and Services

Goods and Services

Trade balance of €6.3bn in Q1 2020

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