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International Accounts Q1 2021

Goods and Services

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Trade balance of €47.4bn in Q1 2021

Ireland’s trade balance at €47.4bn, all goods and services exports less all goods and services imports, increased by €41.1bn in the first quarter of 2021 over the same period in 2020, due to a decrease in R&D related IP imports.

	Goods	of which International Trade
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
Q3 2020	60.263	40.737
Q4 2020	62.101	38.594
Q1 2021	68.821	40.454

Merchandise exports were €68.8bn in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of €9.4bn compared with the same quarter of 2020.

	Goods	of which International Trade
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
Q3 2020	23.443	20.025
Q4 2020	27.942	24.083
Q1 2021	25.164	20.583

Merchandise imports were €25.2bn in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of just €0.1bn compared with the same period in 2020.

	Q1 2021	Q1 2020
Computer Services	36.747	30.441
Business Services	9.549	10.317
Financial Services	4.651	3.667
Insurance	3.145	2.656
Other Services n.e.s	2.863	1.078
Royalties/Licences	2.761	1.985
Repairs and Processing	0.56	0.641
Transport	0.162	1.085
Tourism and Travel	0.125	0.769
Communications	0.06	0.071

Service exports, at €60.6bn, increased by €7.9bn compared to the first quarter of 2020, mainly due to higher Computer services exports (which increased by €6.3bn).

	Q1 2021	Q1 2020
Business Services	22.525	51.097
Royalties/Licences	22.461	18.727
Financial Services	4.197	3.633
Insurance	2.498	2.361
Repairs and Processing	1.963	1.601
Computer Services	1.623	1.199
Transport	1.053	0.748
Other Services n.e.s	0.339	0.216
Tourism and Travel	0.114	1.227
Communications	0.11	0.059

Service imports, at €56.9bn, were down €24bn compared to the first quarter of 2020, mainly due to lower R&D related IP imports.

	Royalties/Licences Exports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
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
Q3 2020	2.388	0.016	1.115
Q4 2020	4.223	0.038	3.008
Q1 2021	2.761	0.025	1.685

	Royalties/Licences Imports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
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
Q3 2020	16.02	2.869	0
Q4 2020	30.854	4.918	0
Q1 2021	22.461	3.201	0

Please note: The Q3 2019, Q4 2019, Q1 - Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 figures for royalties/licences imports of which information and communication are suppressed due to confidentiality requirements.

Royalties/licences imports were €22.5bn in the first quarter of 2021, up €3.7bn on the same period in 2020.

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
		2019	2020	2019				2020				2021
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1
Services	Exports	221,370	229,996	48,280	54,768	55,723	62,599	52,712	51,737	53,858	71,689	60,624
	Imports	296,702	258,931	48,359	93,699	54,727	99,917	80,868	52,525	48,288	77,250	56,882
Repairs and Processing	Exports	2,477	2,736	597	621	588	671	641	745	616	734	560
	Imports	6,603	7,656	1,637	1,405	1,479	2,082	1,601	1,944	1,654	2,457	1,963
Transport	Exports	8,041	2,580	1,151	2,189	2,961	1,740	1,085	299	853	343	162
	Imports	3,281	2,943	792	801	795	893	748	695	704	796	1,053
Tourism and Travel¹	Exports	5,739	1,664	952	1,621	1,941	1,225	769	168	477	250	125
	Imports	7,288	2,081	1,454	1,851	2,418	1,565	1,227	66	495	293	114
Insurance	Exports	9,905	10,797	2,361	2,418	2,440	2,686	2,656	2,540	2,607	2,994	3,145
	Imports	8,141	8,878	2,178	1,993	2,097	1,873	2,361	2,178	1,970	2,369	2,498
Financial services	Exports	16,867	17,221	4,053	4,067	4,198	4,549	3,667	4,065	4,346	5,143	4,651
	Imports	15,501	16,496	3,669	3,700	3,845	4,287	3,633	3,942	4,007	4,914	4,197
Royalties/Licences	Exports	10,614	10,847	2,105	2,654	2,688	3,167	1,985	2,251	2,388	4,223	2,761
	Imports	84,260	83,659	18,689	20,432	21,254	23,885	18,727	18,058	16,020	30,854	22,461
of which: Pharmaceutical products and preparations	Exports	143	112	38	39	33	33	13	45	16	38	25
	Imports	20,888	14,133	4,323	5,846	5,264	5,455	2,884	3,462	2,869	4,918	3,201
Information and communication	Exports	4,788	6,215	1,052	1,252	1,238	1,246	1,036	1,056	1,115	3,008	1,685
	Imports	50,650	57,181	11,104	11,670	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Communications	Exports	336	260	91	90	82	73	71	63	63	63	60
	Imports	456	256	128	113	116	99	59	70	63	64	110
Computer services²	Exports	117,099	132,199	26,085	28,730	28,433	33,851	30,441	29,958	31,258	40,542	36,747
	Imports	4,540	5,191	1,067	1,057	1,197	1,219	1,199	1,340	1,274	1,378	1,623
Business services	Exports	43,792	42,197	10,135	10,653	10,739	12,265	10,317	9,247	8,974	13,659	9,549
	Imports	165,812	130,889	18,544	62,144	21,321	63,803	51,097	24,020	21,870	33,902	22,525
Research and development	Exports	5,041	8,708	1,077	1,067	1,159	1,738	1,336	991	1,027	5,354	1,001
	Imports	105,081	64,382	4,687	47,665	7,001	45,728	*	8,360	6,024	*	6,625
of which: IP related	Exports	622	4,262	85	13	*	*	*	7	12	*	106
	Imports	84,059	40,397	466	*	1,202	*	*	1,786	207	*	914
Operational leasing	Exports	16,400	14,558	3,942	4,122	4,121	4,215	4,169	3,770	3,364	3,255	3,448
	Imports	967	844	241	243	245	238	208	206	212	218	275
Misc. business services³	Exports	22,351	18,933	5,115	5,464	5,460	6,312	4,813	4,486	4,584	5,050	5,100
	Imports	59,764	65,665	13,616	14,236	14,075	17,837	*	15,455	15,635	*	15,625
Other services n.e.s.	Exports	6,501	9,492	751	1,725	1,654	2,371	1,078	2,401	2,274	3,739	2,863
	Imports	819	881	200	205	204	210	216	212	230	223	339
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 2021 Table 2.2 (XLS 14KB)

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Table 2.1 Breakdown of Merchandise Exports and Imports												€ million
		2019	2020	2019				2020				2021
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1
Current Account
Merchandise¹	Exports	227,497	237,813	56,499	54,444	57,406	59,148	59,452	55,997	60,263	62,101	68,821
	Imports	108,372	99,050	26,275	26,344	25,802	29,951	25,043	22,622	23,443	27,942	25,164

International trade	Exports	152,679	159,992	37,559	38,511	37,630	38,979	42,339	38,322	40,737	38,594	40,454
	Imports	87,702	83,700	21,203	21,364	21,093	24,042	21,183	18,409	20,025	24,083	20,583
Goods for processing	Exports	68,468	71,820	16,911	13,966	18,678	18,913	14,596	15,924	18,276	23,024	25,257
	Imports	16,769	13,357	4,015	4,145	3,505	5,104	3,104	3,884	2,936	3,433	4,114
Other conceptual adjustments	Exports	-7,128	-7,538	-599	-1,059	-2,477	-2,993	-761	-1,220	-1,884	-3,673	-2,290
	Imports	3,900	1,992	1,056	835	1,204	805	755	329	482	426	466
Merchanting (net export)	Exports	13,477	13,538	2,627	3,026	3,575	4,249	3,277	2,971	3,134	4,156	5,400
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.

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International Accounts Q1 2021

Goods and Services

Goods and Services

Trade balance of €47.4bn in Q1 2021

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