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International Accounts Q1 2025 Final

Accounts with the UK and US

Accounts with the UK and the US

Current Accounts with UK and US show deficits

Online ISSN: 2565-6384

CSO statistical release, 08 July 2025, 11am

Current account with UK shows a deficit of €5bn in Quarter 1 2025

	Merchandise	Services	Income	Current Account
Q4 2022	-2.209	4.372	-4.315	-2.295
Q1 2023	-2.379	4.073	-5.71	-4.015
Q2 2023	-1.436	4.09	-7.967	-5.312
Q3 2023	-2.072	4.888	-7.254	-4.438
Q4 2023	-2.397	5.013	-7.129	-4.514
Q1 2024	-0.932	3.586	-7.615	-4.962
Q2 2024	-1.406	4.113	-8.887	-6.181
Q3 2024	-1.557	5.856	-9.181	-4.881
Q4 2024	-1.957	5.163	-9.637	-6.431
Q1 2025	-1.874	4.484	-8.061	-5.45

Current account with UK (See Table 4.1)

Merchandise exports were €6,010m in the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of €1,122m compared with the first quarter of 2024.
Merchandise imports were €7,884m in the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of €180m compared with the same period in 2024.
Services exports at €12,596m increased by €744m compared to the first quarter of 2024, mainly due to computer services and business services exports.
Services imports at €8,112m were down €154m over that same period in 2024, these figures were affected by decreased levels of financial services imports.
Investment income earned in UK at €11,796m, increased by €598m compared with one year earlier and investment income payable to UK investors at €19,825m increased by €999m.
When these effects are combined, the trade balance with the UK has decreased by €43m and net income outflows have increased by €446m, compared with the first quarter of 2024. The result is a deficit of €5,450m in the first quarter of 2025, compared to a deficit of €4,962m in the same period in 2024.

The experimental table on foreign direct investment with UK (See Table 3.2); shows that direct investment in Ireland from the UK has decreased by €1,714m in the first quarter of 2025 mainly due to a decrease in other capital investment in Ireland from the UK. Direct investment abroad from Ireland to the UK has increased by €6m in the first quarter of 2025.

Table 4.1 Current Account with the UK

Table 4.1 Current Account with the UK													€ million
			2023	2024	2023				2024				2025
Item			Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1
Current Account
Merchandise¹		Exports	27,732	26,088	7,167	7,555	6,694	6,316	7,132	6,262	6,225	6,469	6,010
		Imports	36,016	31,940	9,546	8,991	8,766	8,713	8,064	7,668	7,782	8,426	7,884

	of which: Merchanting (net export)	Exports	2,584	2,742	676	607	686	615	680	610	718	734	735

Services		Exports	47,682	52,733	10,902	11,621	12,216	12,943	11,852	12,561	14,036	14,284	12,596
		Imports	29,618	34,015	6,829	7,531	7,328	7,930	8,266	8,448	8,180	9,121	8,112
	Transport	Exports	3,788	3,883	595	1,016	1,404	773	676	973	1,407	827	607
		Imports	1,077	1,015	288	262	248	279	254	242	247	272	259
	Tourism and Travel²	Exports	1,162	1,176	302	271	360	229	190	317	395	274	178
		Imports	2,267	2,411	426	615	611	615	443	705	630	633	668
	Insurance	Exports	3,007	3,051	703	746	702	856	682	781	770	818	776
		Imports	2,248	2,190	581	585	554	528	498	530	471	691	489
	Financial services	Exports	7,037	8,160	1,683	1,798	1,764	1,792	2,096	1,982	1,991	2,091	1,953
		Imports	8,306	10,179	1,940	2,161	2,080	2,125	2,684	2,536	2,358	2,601	2,344
	Royalties/Licences	Exports	587	645	87	122	149	229	120	104	194	227	-72
		Imports	492	306	64	89	258	81	36	96	83	91	49
	Computer services³	Exports	20,457	24,029	4,782	4,761	5,162	5,752	5,573	5,646	5,981	6,829	6,031
		Imports	346	1,128	82	89	91	84	271	284	323	250	282
	Business services	Exports	7,079	7,164	1,752	1,814	1,605	1,908	1,540	1,651	1,926	2,047	1,872
		Imports	13,825	15,802	3,214	3,458	3,203	3,950	3,859	3,803	3,797	4,343	3,889
	(of which: Operational leasing)	Exports	872	926	231	224	209	208	221	233	231	241	226
		Imports	130	136	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	34
	Other	Exports	4,565	4,625	999	1,092	1,070	1,404	974	1,107	1,372	1,172	1,252
		Imports	1,058	984	234	271	284	269	222	251	271	240	133

Merchandise and Services Total		Exports	75,414	78,821	18,069	19,176	18,910	19,259	18,984	18,823	20,261	20,753	18,606
		Imports	65,633	65,954	16,375	16,521	16,094	16,643	16,330	16,116	15,961	17,547	15,995

Trade balance		Net	9,780	12,866	1,694	2,654	2,816	2,616	2,654	2,707	4,300	3,205	2,611

Primary Income		Inflows	43,419	46,464	10,106	10,426	10,788	12,099	11,265	13,068	11,537	10,594	11,865
		Outflows	71,464	81,942	15,853	18,405	18,057	19,149	18,921	21,994	20,757	20,270	19,964
	(of which : Investment Income)	Inflows	43,151	46,184	10,039	10,359	10,721	12,032	11,198	12,996	11,464	10,526	11,796
		Outflows	71,083	81,430	15,758	18,311	17,964	19,050	18,826	21,878	20,599	20,127	19,825
	Direct investment income	Inflows	5,321	4,481	1,493	993	1,093	1,742	1,240	1,978	914	349	2,023
		Outflows	4,923	5,404	672	881	1,669	1,701	1,046	1,205	1,310	1,843	1,237
	Portfolio investment income	Inflows	20,252	23,422	4,750	4,940	5,056	5,506	5,385	6,248	5,969	5,820	5,806
		Outflows	60,130	68,485	13,759	16,008	14,836	15,527	15,908	18,724	17,507	16,346	16,611
	Other investment income	Inflows	17,580	18,282	3,797	4,426	4,572	4,785	4,573	4,770	4,582	4,357	3,967
		Outflows	6,031	7,540	1,327	1,423	1,459	1,822	1,872	1,948	1,782	1,938	1,977

Secondary Income		Inflows	2,082	2,360	483	541	553	505	565	555	473	767	547
		Outflows	2,097	2,202	446	529	538	584	524	516	434	728	509

Income balance		Net	-28,060	-35,320	-5,710	-7,967	-7,254	-7,129	-7,615	-8,887	-9,181	-9,637	-8,061

Current Account - Total		Inflows	120,916	127,645	28,659	30,143	30,251	31,863	30,814	32,445	32,272	32,114	31,018
		Outflows	139,195	150,100	32,674	35,455	34,689	36,377	35,776	38,627	37,152	38,545	36,468

Current Account Balance with UK		Net	-18,279	-22,455	-4,015	-5,312	-4,438	-4,514	-4,962	-6,181	-4,881	-6,431	-5,450
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.
²Under the credit item, passenger fate receipts of resident carriers from foreign visitors are excluded; such receipts are included under transport credits - see Background Notes.
³Covers exports and imports of sofware 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.
.. Data suppressed for confidentiality reasons.

Open in Excel: International Accounts Q1 2025 Table 4.1 (XLS 16KB)

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Table 4.2 Foreign Direct Investment with the UK

Current account with US shows deficit of €24.8bn in Quarter 1 2025

	Merchandise	Services	Income	Current Account
2016	30.81	-33.719	2.388	-0.521
2017	28.058	-28.794	-6.21	-6.946
2018	35.062	-23.565	-5.146	6.351
2019	44.7	-20.674	-4.03	19.996
2020	51.391	-68.178	-1.492	-18.279
2021	41.36	-97.379	-58.254	-114.273
2022	53.187	-127.117	-90.25	-164.18
2023	49.967	-132.098	-62.599	-144.73
2024	66.044	-155.894	-65.078	-154.928

Current account with US (See Table 4.3)

Merchandise exports were €53,641m in the first quarter of 2025 an increase of €37,047m compared with the first quarter of 2024.
Merchandise imports were €2,999m in the first quarter of 2025, an increase of €51m compared with the first quarter of 2024.
Services exports at €14,447m decreased by €1,683m compared to the first quarter of 2024.
Services imports at €66,918m were up €19,273m over that same period in 2024.
Investment income earned in the US at €20,540m, increased by €462m compared with one year earlier while investment income payable to US investors at €43,607m increased by €7,274m.
When these effects are combined, the trade balance with the US has increased by €16,040m and net income outflows have increased by €6,814m, compared with the first quarter of 2024. The result is a current account balance deficit of €24,831m in the first quarter of 2025, down from a deficit of €34,057m in the first quarter of 2024.

These tables showing the Current Account with the US annually and quarterly follow on from our note on Ireland’s Current Account with the US.

Table 4.3 Current Account with US - Annual

Table 4.3 Current Account with US - Annual										€ million
Item		2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Current Account
Merchandise¹	Exports	47,072	43,001	51,906	63,899	66,269	53,052	65,570	61,043	81,397
	Imports	16,262	14,943	16,844	19,199	14,878	11,692	12,383	11,076	15,353
Net Merchandise		30,810	28,058	35,062	44,700	51,391	41,360	53,187	49,967	66,044

of which: International Trade	Exports	31,898	33,284	39,347	47,281	50,661	52,700	63,286	54,089	73,286
	Imports	12,212	14,398	15,334	14,412	11,475	14,897	18,831	20,582	20,481
of which: Goods for Processing	Exports	14,021	11,489	11,140	14,112	9,669	5,878	789	2,230	2,904
	Imports	1,055	518	1,538	4,697	-1,951	-4,355	-6,608	-9,776	-5,421

Services	Exports	17,997	19,851	26,420	37,578	42,795	47,094	47,558	55,759	61,939
	Imports	51,716	48,645	49,985	58,252	110,973	144,473	174,675	187,857	217,833
Net Services		-33,719	-28,794	-23,565	-20,674	-68,178	-97,379	-127,117	-132,098	-155,894


Merchandise and Services Total	Exports	65,069	62,852	78,326	101,477	109,064	100,146	113,128	116,802	143,336
	Imports	67,978	63,588	66,829	77,451	125,851	156,165	187,058	198,933	233,186

Trade balance	Net	-2,909	-736	11,497	24,026	-16,787	-56,019	-73,930	-82,131	-89,850

Primary Income	Inflows	19,249	21,794	23,879	29,838	27,737	36,295	45,946	75,306	88,181
	Outflows	16,934	28,138	29,154	34,017	29,371	94,758	136,401	138,109	153,497
Net Primary Income		2,315	-6,344	-5,275	-4,179	-1,634	-58,463	-90,455	-62,803	-65,316

of which: Investment Income	Inflows	19,193	21,736	23,820	29,781	27,710	36,279	45,901	75,261	88,139
	Outflows	16,917	28,117	29,140	34,006	29,360	94,747	136,385	138,089	153,475
Direct investment income	Inflows	3,295	2,270	909	2,078	4,194	6,392	6,493	9,768	9,297
	Outflows	3,511	10,803	11,517	11,784	11,075	75,711	111,640	100,543	109,280
Portfolio investment income	Inflows	13,027	16,398	18,760	21,685	20,002	25,030	31,782	42,417	51,698
	Outflows	10,465	13,675	14,349	17,427	14,895	14,287	19,381	28,434	27,892
Other investment income	Inflows	2,871	3,068	4,151	6,018	3,514	4,857	7,626	23,076	27,144
	Outflows	2,941	3,639	3,274	4,795	3,390	4,749	5,364	9,112	16,303

Secondary Income	Inflows	464	582	526	565	687	347	1,078	974	942
	Outflows	391	448	397	416	545	138	873	770	704

Income balance	Net	2,388	-6,210	-5,146	-4,030	-1,492	-58,254	-90,250	-62,599	-65,078

Current Account - Total	Inflows	84,782	85,228	102,731	131,880	137,488	136,788	160,152	193,082	232,459
	Outflows	85,303	92,174	96,380	111,884	155,767	251,061	324,332	337,812	387,387

Current Account Balance with US	Net	-521	-6,946	6,351	19,996	-18,279	-114,273	-164,180	-144,730	-154,928
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.

Open in Excel: International Accounts Q1 2025 Table 4.3 (XLS 12KB)

Table 4.4 Current Account with US - Quarterly

Table 4.4 Current Account with US - Quarterly												€ million
		2023	2024	2023				2024				2025
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1
Current Account
Merchandise¹	Exports	61,043	81,397	16,229	17,292	16,743	10,779	16,594	20,302	23,457	21,044	53,641
	Imports	11,075	15,354	2,751	1,277	2,174	4,873	2,948	5,000	4,853	2,553	2,999
Net Merchandise		49,968	66,043	13,478	16,015	14,569	5,906	13,646	15,302	18,604	18,491	50,642

of which: International Trade	Exports	54,089	73,286	13,645	13,958	13,401	13,085	15,790	17,936	18,925	20,635	50,187
	Imports	20,582	20,480	4,569	4,614	4,899	6,500	4,382	5,526	6,164	4,408	5,434
of which: Goods for Processing	Exports	2,231	2,904	103	1,325	982	-179	200	1,616	1,707	-619	702
	Imports	-9,776	-5,422	-1,880	-3,412	-2,826	-1,658	-1,502	-621	-1,412	-1,887	-2,500

Services	Exports	55,759	61,939	12,915	13,898	13,906	15,040	16,130	14,825	14,098	16,886	14,447
	Imports	187,857	217,832	41,966	42,938	48,393	54,560	47,645	52,914	54,305	62,968	66,918
Net Services		-132,098	-155,893	-29,051	-29,040	-34,487	-39,520	-31,515	-38,089	-40,207	-46,082	-52,471


Merchandise and Services Total	Exports	116,802	143,336	29,144	31,190	30,649	25,819	32,724	35,127	37,555	37,930	68,088
	Imports	198,932	233,186	44,717	44,215	50,567	59,433	50,593	57,914	59,158	65,521	69,917

Trade balance	Net	-82,130	-89,850	-15,573	-13,025	-19,918	-33,614	-17,869	-22,787	-21,603	-27,591	-1,829

Primary Income	Inflows	75,307	88,181	15,431	20,090	19,440	20,346	20,090	25,998	21,658	20,435	20,547
	Outflows	138,109	153,497	39,619	33,168	31,247	34,075	36,338	36,593	33,188	47,378	43,612
Net Primary Income		-62,802	-65,316	-24,188	-13,078	-11,807	-13,729	-16,248	-10,595	-11,530	-26,943	-23,065

of which: Investment Income	Inflows	75,260	88,139	15,419	20,078	19,429	20,334	20,078	25,987	21,646	20,428	20,540
	Outflows	138,090	153,475	39,614	33,164	31,242	34,070	36,333	36,587	33,182	47,373	43,607
Direct investment income	Inflows	9,768	9,298	906	3,279	2,497	3,086	2,536	2,683	2,202	1,877	1,707
	Outflows	100,544	109,280	31,642	23,285	21,309	24,308	26,249	23,507	22,606	36,918	33,072
Portfolio investment income	Inflows	42,416	51,698	9,119	11,242	10,836	11,219	11,504	14,681	13,049	12,464	12,955
	Outflows	28,434	27,893	5,799	7,714	7,331	7,590	7,750	8,164	5,921	6,058	6,069
Other investment income	Inflows	23,076	27,143	5,394	5,557	6,096	6,029	6,038	8,623	6,395	6,087	5,878
	Outflows	9,112	16,302	2,173	2,165	2,602	2,172	2,334	4,916	4,655	4,397	4,466

Secondary Income	Inflows	973	943	232	214	278	249	270	336	225	112	324
	Outflows	770	704	175	167	229	199	210	276	166	52	261

Income balance	Net	-62,599	-65,077	-24,131	-13,031	-11,758	-13,679	-16,188	-10,535	-11,471	-26,883	-23,002

Current Account - Total	Inflows	193,082	232,460	44,807	51,494	50,367	46,414	53,084	61,461	59,438	58,477	88,959
	Outflows	337,811	387,387	84,511	77,550	82,043	93,707	87,141	94,783	92,512	112,951	113,790

Current Account Balance with US	Net	-144,729	-154,927	-39,704	-26,056	-31,676	-47,293	-34,057	-33,322	-33,074	-54,474	-24,831
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.

Open in Excel: International Accounts Q1 2025 Table 4.4 (XLS 14KB)

Net IIP vis-à-vis the US reaches €983bn by end-2024

X-axis label	Direct Investment	Portfolio Investment	Other Investment	Reserve Assets	Net IIP
2016	-52.7	12.2	11	0	-29.6
2017	-36.1	32.9	7.5	0.1	4.4
2018	-62.6	44.8	6.3	0.2	-11.3
2019	-30.9	54.1	12.5	0.3	36
2020	-14.5	106.7	7	0.5	99.6
2021	-39.6	119.2	16.9	0.6	97.1
2022	-42	98.6	16.7	0.5	73.9
2023	-55.3	142.4	15.6	0.5	103.2
2024	-43	201.1	16.1	0.5	174.7

Net IIP vis-à-vis the US (see Table 4.5)

At the end of 2024, Ireland's net international investment position vis-à-vis the United States stood at €983bn or 184% of GDP, up from €542bn or 106% of GDP at the end of 2023. The increase in NIIP vis-a-vis the US was mainly driven by a 24% year-on-year increase in the stock of foreign assets, which stood at €597bn at end-2024. The stock of foreign financial liabilities vis-à-vis the US grew by 12% during the year. This was influenced by an annual increase in portfolio investment (24%) and other investment (22%), and an annual decrease in direct investment (-30%).

Table 4.5 International Investment Position (IIP) vis-à-vis the United States classified by Functional Category - Annual

Next chapter: Foreign Direct Investment

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Table 4.2 Foreign Direct investment with the UK¹												€ million
		2023	2024	2023				2024				2025
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1

Direct Investment	Abroad	6,507	2,115	2,522	2,898	-391	1,478	-1,011	3,549	287	-710	6
	In Ireland	1,770	-267	1,849	364	165	-608	-449	-749	250	681	-1714

Equity	Abroad	3,790	1,783	1,179	2,009	654	-52	-437	1,626	118	476	-558
	In Ireland	17	978	130	-614	-159	660	77	249	45	607	-406
Reinvested Earnings	Abroad	2,644	1,612	924	492	-168	1,396	962	1,638	-269	-719	1096
	In Ireland	3,605	2,289	596	600	806	1,603	529	-412	690	1,482	958
Other Capital	Abroad	73	-1,280	419	397	-877	134	-1,535	285	438	-468	-532
	In Ireland	-1,852	-3,534	1,124	377	-482	-2,871	-1,055	-586	-485	-1,408	-2266
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'.
.. Data suppressed for confidentiality reasons.

Table 4.5 International Investment Position (IIP) vis-à-vis the United States classified by Functional Category - Annual									€ million
Item	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Foreign Assets
Direct Investment Abroad¹	94,639	98,884	90,979	98,489	213,248	271,288	310,724	203,858	146,329
Portfolio Investment	708,510	771,152	843,190	1,070,286	1,185,446	1,599,756	1,408,068	1,746,402	2,296,416
Other Investment²	289,085	281,314	325,675	386,699	375,871	437,295	479,064	508,088	612,393
Reserve Assets	3	444	628	1,097	1,845	2,504	2,648	2,817	3,010
Total Foreign Assets	1,092,238	1,151,794	1,260,472	1,556,571	1,776,410	2,310,842	2,200,504	2,461,165	3,058,148

Foreign Liabilities
Direct Investment in Ireland ¹	240,151	210,200	300,859	210,968	268,626	448,735	529,269	494,037	388,426
Portfolio Investment	674,810	669,832	692,940	873,504	778,199	1,065,165	894,392	999,234	1,164,605
Other Investment ²	258,860	258,296	304,646	341,194	349,226	361,432	391,906	426,188	521,638
Total Foreign Liabilities	1,173,821	1,138,328	1,298,445	1,425,666	1,396,051	1,875,331	1,815,567	1,919,459	2,074,668

Net International Investment Position (IIP)
Direct Investment¹	-145,512	-111,316	-209,880	-112,479	-55,378	-177,447	-218,545	-290,179	-242,097
Portfolio Investment	33,700	101,319	150,250	196,782	407,247	534,591	513,676	747,168	1,131,811
Other Investment²	30,225	23,018	21,029	45,505	26,645	75,864	87,158	81,901	90,755
Reserve Assets	3	444	628	1,097	1,845	2,504	2,648	2,817	3,010

Total (Net IIP)	-81,583	13,465	-37,973	130,904	380,359	435,511	384,937	541,707	983,480
¹Reflecting the directional principle for reclassifying Direct Investment (see Background Notes).
²Includes financial derivatives and trade credits; in the case of liabilities this category also includes life insurance liabilities to non-residents.

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International Accounts Q1 2025 Final

Accounts with the UK and US

Accounts with the UK and the US

Current Accounts with UK and US show deficits

Current account with UK shows a deficit of €5bn in Quarter 1 2025

Current account with UK (See Table 4.1)

Current account with US shows deficit of €24.8bn in Quarter 1 2025

Current account with US (See Table 4.3)

Net IIP vis-à-vis the US reaches €983bn by end-2024

Net IIP vis-à-vis the US (see Table 4.5)

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