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International Accounts Q3 2020

Goods and Services

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Trade balance of €42.4bn in Q3 2020

Ireland’s trade balance at €42.4bn, all goods and services exports less all goods and services imports, increased by €9.8bn in the third quarter of 2020 over the same period in 2019, due to increases in both the merchandise and services balance.

	Goods	of which International Trade
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
Q2 2020	55.997	38.322
Q3 2020	60.263	40.737

Merchandise exports were €60.3bn in the third quarter of 2020, an increase of €2.9bn compared with the same quarter of 2019.

	Goods	of which International Trade
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
Q2 2020	22.622	18.409
Q3 2020	23.443	20.025

Merchandise imports were €23.4bn in the third quarter of 2020, a decrease of €2.4bn compared with the same period in 2019.

	Q3 2020	Q3 2019
Computer Services	31.258	28.433
Business Services	8.974	10.739
Financial Services	4.346	4.198
Insurance	2.607	2.44
Royalties/Licences	2.388	2.688
Transport	0.853	2.961
Other Services n.e.s	2.274	1.654
Tourism and Travel	0.477	1.941
Repairs and Processing	0.616	0.588
Communications	0.063	0.082

Service exports, at €53.9bn, decreased by €1.9bn compared to the third quarter of 2019, mainly due to lower Transport and Tourism & Travel services exports (which decreased by €2,108m and €1,464m respectively).

	Q3 2020	Q3 2019
Business Services	21.87	21.321
Royalties/Licences	16.02	21.254
Financial Services	4.007	3.845
Insurance	1.97	2.097
Repairs and Processing	1.654	1.479
Computer Services	1.274	1.197
Transport	0.704	0.795
Tourism and Travel	0.495	2.418
Other Services n.e.s	0.23	0.204
Communications	0.063	0.116

Service imports, at €48.3bn, were down €6.4bn compared to the third quarter of 2019, mainly due to lower Tourism & Travel and Royalty services imports which decreased by €1,923m and €5,234m respectively.

	Royalties/Licences Exports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
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
Q2 2020	2.251	0.045	1.056
Q3 2020	2.388	0.016	1.115

	Royalties/Licences Imports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
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
Q2 2020	18.058	3.462	0
Q3 2020	16.02	2.869	0

Please note: The Q3 2019, Q4 2019, Q1 2020, Q2 2020 and Q3 2020 figures for royalties/licences imports of which information and communication are suppressed due to confidentiality requirements.

Royalties/licences imports were €16bn in the third quarter of 2020, down €5,234m on the same period in 2019.

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
		2018	2019	2019				2020
Item				Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3
Services	Exports	188,454	221,370	48,280	54,768	55,723	62,599	52,712	51,737	53,858
	Imports	204,799	296,702	48,359	93,699	54,727	99,917	80,868	52,525	48,288
Repairs and Processing	Exports	1,899	2,477	597	621	588	671	641	745	616
	Imports	5,428	6,603	1,637	1,405	1,479	2,082	1,601	1,944	1,654
Transport	Exports	7,746	8,041	1,151	2,189	2,961	1,740	1,085	299	853
	Imports	3,065	3,281	792	801	795	893	748	695	704
Tourism and Travel¹	Exports	5,760	5,739	952	1,621	1,941	1,225	769	168	477
	Imports	6,399	7,288	1,454	1,851	2,418	1,565	1,227	66	495
Insurance	Exports	9,535	9,905	2,361	2,418	2,440	2,686	2,656	2,540	2,607
	Imports	7,983	8,141	2,178	1,993	2,097	1,873	2,361	2,178	1,970
Financial services	Exports	15,354	16,867	4,053	4,067	4,198	4,549	3,667	4,065	4,346
	Imports	13,924	15,501	3,669	3,700	3,845	4,287	3,633	3,942	4,007
Royalties/Licences	Exports	12,150	10,614	2,105	2,654	2,688	3,167	1,985	2,251	2,388
	Imports	72,494	84,260	18,689	20,432	21,254	23,885	18,727	18,058	16,020
of which: Pharmaceutical products and preparations	Exports	403	143	38	39	33	33	13	45	16
	Imports	16,556	20,888	4,323	5,846	5,264	5,455	2,884	3,462	2,869
Information and communication	Exports	6,312	4,788	1,052	1,252	1,238	1,246	1,036	1,056	1,115
	Imports	40,732	50,650	11,104	11,670	*	*	*	*	*
Communications	Exports	411	336	91	90	82	73	71	63	63
	Imports	571	456	128	113	116	99	59	70	63
Computer services²	Exports	93,075	117,099	26,085	28,730	28,433	33,851	30,441	29,958	31,258
	Imports	5,344	4,540	1,067	1,057	1,197	1,219	1,199	1,340	1,274
Business services	Exports	36,638	43,792	10,135	10,653	10,739	12,265	10,317	9,247	8,974
	Imports	88,826	165,812	18,544	62,144	21,321	63,803	51,097	24,020	21,870
Research and development	Exports	3,130	5,041	1,077	1,067	1,159	1,738	1,336	991	1,027
	Imports	37,443	105,081	4,687	47,665	7,001	45,728	*	8,360	6,024
of which: IP related	Exports	740	622	85	13	*	*	*	7	12
	Imports	19,757	84,059	466	*	1,202	*	*	1,786	207
Operational leasing	Exports	15,405	16,400	3,942	4,122	4,121	4,215	4,169	3,770	3,364
	Imports	1,034	967	241	243	245	238	208	206	212
Misc. business services³	Exports	18,103	22,351	5,115	5,464	5,460	6,312	4,813	4,486	4,584
	Imports	50,349	59,764	13,616	14,236	14,075	17,837	*	15,455	15,635
Other services n.e.s.	Exports	5,886	6,501	751	1,725	1,654	2,371	1,078	2,401	2,274
	Imports	762	819	200	205	204	210	216	212	230
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 Q3 2020 Table 2.2 (XLS 13KB)

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Table 2.1 Breakdown of Merchandise Exports and Imports										€ million
		2018	2019	2019				2020
Item				Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3
Current Account
Merchandise¹	Exports	211,444	227,497	56,499	54,444	57,406	59,148	59,452	55,997	60,263
	Imports	102,312	108,372	26,275	26,344	25,802	29,951	25,043	22,622	23,443

International trade	Exports	140,594	152,679	37,559	38,511	37,630	38,979	42,339	38,322	40,737
	Imports	89,189	87,702	21,203	21,364	21,093	24,042	21,183	18,409	20,025
Goods for processing	Exports	63,895	68,468	16,911	13,966	18,678	18,913	14,596	15,924	18,276
	Imports	10,215	16,769	4,015	4,145	3,505	5,104	3,104	3,884	2,936
Other conceptual adjustments	Exports	-3,640	-7,128	-599	-1,059	-2,477	-2,993	-761	-1,220	-1,884
	Imports	2,907	3,900	1,056	835	1,204	805	755	329	482
Merchanting (net export)	Exports	10,596	13,477	2,627	3,026	3,575	4,249	3,277	2,971	3,134
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.

International Accounts Q3 2020

Goods and Services

Goods and Services

Trade balance of €42.4bn in Q3 2020

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