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International Accounts Q3 2021

Goods and Services

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Trade balance of €50.5bn in Q3 2021

Ireland’s trade balance at €50.5bn, all goods and services exports less all goods and services imports, increased by €5.8bn in the third quarter of 2021 over the same period in 2020, due to increased Computer service exports and goods for processing exports.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q2 2019	53.367	38.54
Q3 2019	57.16	37.629
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

Merchandise exports were €72bn in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of €11bn compared with the same quarter of 2020.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q2 2019	26.238	21.286
Q3 2019	25.912	21.21
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

Merchandise imports were €26.5bn in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of €3bn compared with the same period in 2020.

	Q3 2021	Q3 2020
Computer Services	41.806	31.858
Business Services	12.133	10.798
Financial Services	5.568	4.973
Royalties/Licences	3.72	3.004
Insurance	3.328	2.731
Other Services n.e.s	2.979	2.576
Transport	1.188	0.806
Repairs and Processing	0.411	0.696
Tourism and Travel	0.226	0.313
Communications	0.061	0.063

Service exports, at €71.4bn, increased by €13.6bn compared to the third quarter of 2020, mainly due to higher Computer services exports (which increased by €9.9bn).

	Q3 2021	Q3 2020
Royalties/Licences	27.641	16.2
Business Services	25.796	23.628
Financial Services	4.742	4.281
Insurance	2.467	2.056
Computer Services	1.954	1.541
Repairs and Processing	1.953	1.586
Transport	1.128	0.901
Other Services n.e.s	0.498	0.378
Tourism and Travel	0.311	0.299
Communications	0.122	0.107

Service imports, at €66.6bn, were up €15.6bn compared to the third quarter of 2020, mainly due to increased Royalty imports.

	Royalties/Licences Exports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q2 2019	2.618	0.038	1.249
Q3 2019	2.652	0.032	1.234
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

	Royalties/Licences Imports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q2 2019	20.794	6.059	11.677
Q3 2019	21.61	5.489	0
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

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

Royalties/licences imports were €27.6bn in the third quarter of 2021, up €11.4bn 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	2020				2021
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3
Services	Exports	230,152	244,069	55,756	55,356	57,818	75,139	62,212	68,818	71,418
	Imports	335,716	305,968	117,336	57,021	50,975	80,636	57,259	65,873	66,613
Repairs and Processing	Exports	2,049	2,707	609	695	696	707	560	379	411
	Imports	6,261	7,377	1,530	1,874	1,586	2,387	1,963	1,849	1,953
Transport	Exports	8,041	2,535	1,088	298	806	343	162	278	1,188
	Imports	4,236	3,914	987	956	901	1,070	1,053	1,099	1,128
Tourism and Travel¹	Exports	5,786	1,645	769	277	313	286	125	144	226
	Imports	7,374	2,072	1,227	193	299	353	114	160	311
Insurance	Exports	10,271	11,284	2,767	2,658	2,731	3,128	3,145	3,144	3,328
	Imports	8,361	9,282	2,479	2,299	2,056	2,448	2,499	2,608	2,467
Financial services	Exports	17,620	19,129	3,936	4,350	4,973	5,870	5,491	5,631	5,568
	Imports	15,686	16,943	3,691	4,009	4,281	4,962	4,537	4,764	4,742
Royalties/Licences	Exports	10,482	13,085	2,723	2,847	3,004	4,511	2,761	3,568	3,720
	Imports	85,851	84,421	18,935	18,468	16,200	30,818	22,461	26,283	27,641
of which: Pharmaceutical products and preparations	Exports	140	118	20	30	23	45	25	44	36
	Imports	21,940	14,391	2,936	3,726	2,936	4,793	3,201	4,795	3,731
Information and communication	Exports	4,784	8,107	1,714	1,672	1,717	3,004	1,685	2,275	2,246
	Imports	50,680	56,855	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Communications	Exports	484	259	71	63	63	62	60	61	61
	Imports	568	442	108	115	107	112	110	118	122
Computer services²	Exports	118,459	134,182	30,633	30,566	31,858	41,125	36,747	41,289	41,806
	Imports	6,161	6,306	1,471	1,644	1,541	1,650	1,623	1,949	1,954
Business services	Exports	48,106	48,214	11,681	10,682	10,798	15,053	10,298	10,938	12,133
	Imports	199,717	173,741	86,528	27,143	23,628	36,442	22,560	26,660	25,796
Research and development	Exports	5,487	9,198	1,411	1,228	1,137	5,422	1,001	1,053	1,407
	Imports	137,006	104,183	*	10,809	6,705	*	6,625	7,053	7,489
of which: IP related	Exports	933	4,710	*	*	121	*	*	123	*
	Imports	116,004	79,374	*	3,983	699	*	*	*	197
Operational leasing	Exports	19,425	18,122	4,971	4,715	4,261	4,175	4,162	4,161	4,091
	Imports	1,185	1,183	291	291	297	304	311	322	351
Misc. business services³	Exports	23,194	20,897	5,299	4,740	5,401	5,457	5,134	5,725	6,636
	Imports	61,525	68,376	*	16,043	16,626	*	15,624	19,285	17,956
Other services n.e.s.	Exports	8,854	11,033	1,479	2,922	2,576	4,056	2,863	3,386	2,979
	Imports	1,500	1,472	381	319	378	394	339	381	498
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 2021 Table 2.2 (XLS 13KB)

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Table 2.1 Breakdown of Merchandise Exports and Imports										€ million
		2019	2020	2020				2021
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3
Current Account
Merchandise¹	Exports	225,944	244,809	62,528	57,033	61,349	63,899	68,821	69,057	72,264
	Imports	107,828	99,856	24,872	22,756	23,454	28,774	25,164	26,777	26,536

International trade	Exports	152,535	161,894	44,206	37,848	40,540	39,300	40,454	40,366	40,516
	Imports	87,486	83,022	20,894	17,714	19,659	24,755	20,583	25,091	22,779
Goods for processing	Exports	66,264	73,945	14,737	16,728	18,535	23,945	25,257	21,162	27,410
	Imports	16,394	14,851	3,230	4,722	3,322	3,577	4,114	1,854	4,228
Other conceptual adjustments	Exports	-6,813	-5,901	-83	-884	-1,316	-3,618	-2,290	-1,986	-2,805
	Imports	3,948	1,983	747	320	474	442	466	-168	-472
Merchanting (net export)	Exports	13,960	14,873	3,668	3,342	3,591	4,272	5,400	9,516	7,143
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.

International Accounts Q3 2021

Goods and Services

Goods and Services

Trade balance of €50.5bn in Q3 2021

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