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International Accounts Q1 2022

Goods and Services

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Trade balance of €53.3bn in Q1 2022

Ireland’s trade balance at €53.3bn, all goods and services exports less all goods and services imports, increased by €4.7bn in the first quarter of 2022 over the same period in 2021, due to increased Merchandise exports and Computer services exports.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q4 2019	58.823	38.789
Q1 2020	62.528	44.206
Q2 2020	57.033	37.848
Q3 2020	61.349	40.54
Q4 2020	63.899	39.3
Q1 2021	68.821	40.454
Q2 2021	69.057	40.366
Q3 2021	72.264	40.516
Q4 2021	72.681	43.397
Q1 2022	78.473	52.257

Merchandise exports were €78.5bn in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of €9.7bn compared with the same quarter of 2021.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q4 2019	29.635	24.01
Q1 2020	24.872	20.894
Q2 2020	22.756	17.714
Q3 2020	23.454	19.659
Q4 2020	28.774	24.755
Q1 2021	25.164	20.583
Q2 2021	26.777	25.091
Q3 2021	26.536	22.779
Q4 2021	31.404	28.198
Q1 2022	30.688	27.941

Merchandise imports were €30.7bn in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of €5.5bn compared with the same period in 2021.

	Q1 2022	Q1 2021
Computer Services	45.818	36.747
Business Services	14.719	10.298
Financial Services	4.981	5.491
Royalties/Licences	3.882	2.761
Insurance	3.558	3.145
Other Services n.e.s	2.789	2.863
Transport	0.81	0.162
Repairs and Processing	0.534	0.56
Tourism and Travel	0.265	0.125
Communications	0.059	0.06

Service exports, at €77.4bn, increased by €15bn compared to the first quarter of 2021, mainly due to higher Computer services exports (which increased by €9.1bn) and higher Business services exports.

	Q1 2022	Q1 2021
Royalties/Licences	28.857	22.461
Business Services	28.167	22.56
Financial Services	4.647	4.537
Insurance	3.375	2.499
Computer Services	2.387	1.623
Repairs and Processing	2.158	1.963
Transport	1.235	1.053
Other Services n.e.s	0.491	0.339
Tourism and Travel	0.357	0.114
Communications	0.196	0.11

Service imports, at €71.9bn, were up €14.6bn compared to the first quarter of 2021, mainly due to increased Royalty and Business service imports.

	Royalties/Licences Exports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q4 2019	3.143	0.033	1.253
Q1 2020	2.723	0.02	1.714
Q2 2020	2.847	0.03	1.672
Q3 2020	3.004	0.023	1.717
Q4 2020	4.511	0.045	3.004
Q1 2021	2.761	0.025	1.685
Q2 2021	3.568	0.044	2.275
Q3 2021	3.72	0.036	2.246
Q4 2021	4.84	0.063	3.204
Q1 2022	3.882	0.036	2.351

	Royalties/Licences Imports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q4 2019	24.433	5.873	0
Q1 2020	18.935	2.936	0
Q2 2020	18.468	3.726	0
Q3 2020	16.2	2.936	0
Q4 2020	30.818	4.793	0
Q1 2021	22.461	3.201	0
Q2 2021	26.283	4.795	0
Q3 2021	27.641	3.731	0
Q4 2021	36.208	6.934	0
Q1 2022	28.857	4.008	0

Please note: The figures for royalties/licences imports of which information and communication are suppressed due to confidentiality requirements.

Royalties/licences imports were €28.9bn in the first quarter of 2022, up €6.4bn on the same period in 2021.

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
		2020	2021	2020				2021				2022
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1
Services	Exports	244,069	285,573	55,756	55,356	57,818	75,139	62,212	68,818	71,418	83,125	77,415
	Imports	305,968	288,701	117,336	57,021	50,975	80,636	57,259	65,873	66,613	98,956	71,871
Repairs and Processing	Exports	2,707	1,933	609	695	696	707	560	379	411	583	534
	Imports	7,377	8,292	1,530	1,874	1,586	2,387	1,963	1,849	1,953	2,527	2,158
Transport	Exports	2,535	2,505	1,088	298	806	343	162	278	1,188	877	810
	Imports	3,914	4,597	987	956	901	1,070	1,053	1,099	1,128	1,317	1,235
Tourism and Travel¹	Exports	1,645	767	769	277	313	286	125	144	226	272	265
	Imports	2,072	903	1,227	193	299	353	114	160	311	318	357
Insurance	Exports	11,284	13,232	2,767	2,658	2,731	3,128	3,145	3,144	3,328	3,615	3,558
	Imports	9,282	10,164	2,479	2,299	2,056	2,448	2,499	2,608	2,467	2,590	3,375
Financial services	Exports	19,129	21,925	3,936	4,350	4,973	5,870	5,491	5,631	5,568	5,235	4,981
	Imports	16,943	18,790	3,691	4,009	4,281	4,962	4,537	4,764	4,742	4,747	4,647
Royalties/Licences	Exports	13,085	14,889	2,723	2,847	3,004	4,511	2,761	3,568	3,720	4,840	3,882
	Imports	84,421	112,593	18,935	18,468	16,200	30,818	22,461	26,283	27,641	36,208	28,857
of which: Pharmaceutical products and preparations	Exports	118	168	20	30	23	45	25	44	36	63	36
	Imports	14,391	18,661	2,936	3,726	2,936	4,793	3,201	4,795	3,731	6,934	4,008
Information and communication	Exports	8,107	9,410	1,714	1,672	1,717	3,004	1,685	2,275	2,246	3,204	2,351
	Imports	56,855	79,612	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Communications	Exports	259	242	71	63	63	62	60	61	61	60	59
	Imports	442	471	108	115	107	112	110	118	122	121	196
Computer services²	Exports	134,182	169,909	30,633	30,566	31,858	41,125	36,747	41,289	41,806	50,067	45,818
	Imports	6,306	7,681	1,471	1,644	1,541	1,650	1,623	1,949	1,954	2,155	2,387
Business services	Exports	48,214	46,862	11,681	10,682	10,798	15,053	10,298	10,938	12,133	13,493	14,719
	Imports	173,741	123,463	86,528	27,143	23,628	36,442	22,560	26,660	25,796	48,447	28,167
Research and development	Exports	9,198	5,229	1,411	1,228	1,137	5,422	1,001	1,053	1,407	1,768	1,166
	Imports	104,183	45,234	*	10,809	6,705	*	6,625	7,053	7,489	24,067	8,392
of which: IP related	Exports	4,710	589	*	*	121	*	*	123	*	5	101
	Imports	79,374	17,747	*	3,983	699	*	*	*	197	*	881
Operational leasing	Exports	18,122	16,730	4,971	4,715	4,261	4,175	4,162	4,161	4,091	4,316	4,360
	Imports	1,183	1,400	291	291	297	304	311	322	351	416	429
Misc. business services³	Exports	20,897	24,904	5,299	4,740	5,401	5,457	5,134	5,725	6,636	7,409	9,193
	Imports	68,376	76,830	*	16,043	16,626	*	15,624	19,285	17,956	23,965	19,346
Other services n.e.s.	Exports	11,033	13,310	1,479	2,922	2,576	4,056	2,863	3,386	2,979	4,082	2,789
	Imports	1,472	1,744	381	319	378	394	339	381	498	526	491
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 2022 Table 2.2 (XLS 14KB)

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Table 2.1 Breakdown of Merchandise Exports and Imports												€ million
		2020	2021	2020				2021				2022
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1
Current Account
Merchandise¹	Exports	244,809	282,823	62,528	57,033	61,349	63,899	68,821	69,057	72,264	72,681	78,473
	Imports	99,856	109,881	24,872	22,756	23,454	28,774	25,164	26,777	26,536	31,404	30,688

International trade	Exports	161,894	164,733	44,206	37,848	40,540	39,300	40,454	40,366	40,516	43,397	52,257
	Imports	83,022	96,651	20,894	17,714	19,659	24,755	20,583	25,091	22,779	28,198	27,941
Goods for processing	Exports	73,945	105,033	14,737	16,728	18,535	23,945	25,257	21,162	27,410	31,204	18,619
	Imports	14,851	12,644	3,230	4,722	3,322	3,577	4,114	1,854	4,228	2,448	1,703
Other conceptual adjustments	Exports	-5,901	-13,288	-83	-884	-1,316	-3,618	-2,290	-1,986	-2,805	-6,207	-1,276
	Imports	1,983	584	747	320	474	442	466	-168	-472	758	1,045
Merchanting (net export)	Exports	14,873	26,346	3,668	3,342	3,591	4,272	5,400	9,516	7,143	4,287	8,874
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.

International Accounts Q1 2022

Goods and Services

Goods and Services

Trade balance of €53.3bn in Q1 2022

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