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International Accounts Q4 2019

Accounts with the UK

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Current account with UK shows surplus of €0.5bn in Quarter 4 2019

	Merchandise	Services	Income	Current Account
Q3 2017	-0.039	3.253	-3.045	0.171
Q4 2017	-0.507	2.303	-2.065	-0.27
Q1 2018	-0.299	2.134	-2.407	-0.574
Q2 2018	-0.247	2.607	-4.186	-1.825
Q3 2018	-0.228	2.976	-3.414	-0.665
Q4 2018	-0.513	2.733	-4.277	-2.058
Q1 2019	-1.059	2.418	-2.921	-1.561
Q2 2019	-0.751	2.803	-4.401	-2.348
Q3 2019	-0.746	3.082	-4.072	-1.735
Q4 2019	-1.186	3.918	-2.213	0.519

Current account with UK (See Table 3.1)

Merchandise exports were €5,813m in the fourth quarter of 2019, a decrease of €504m compared with the fourth quarter of 2018.
Merchandise imports were €6,999m in the fourth quarter of 2019, an increase of €169m compared with the fourth quarter of 2018.
Services exports at €9,387m increased by €1,918m compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, mainly due to computer, financial and business services exports.
Service imports at €5,469m were up €733m over that same period in 2018. These figures were affected by increased levels of financial, business and insurance costs.
Investment income earned in UK at €5,824m, increased by €1,847m compared with one year earlier while investment income payable to UK investors at €7,925m decreased by €300m.
When these effects are combined, the trade balance with the UK has increased by €513m and net income outflows have decreased by €2,064m, compared with the fourth quarter of 2018. The result is a current account surplus of €519m in the fourth quarter of 2019, up from the deficit of €2,058m in the fourth quarter of 2018.

We have also included a new experimental table on foreign direct investment with UK (See Table 3.2); this table shows that direct investment in Ireland from the UK has decreased by €11,183m in the fourth quarter of 2019. Direct investment abroad from Ireland to the UK has increased by €1,309m in the fourth quarter of 2019 mainly due to increases in equity and reinvested earnings.

Table 3.1 Current Account with UK

Table 3.1 Current Account with UK											€ million
		2018	2019	2018				2019
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4
Current Account
Merchandise¹	Exports	23,051	22,106	5,429	5,536	5,769	6,317	5,540	5,400	5,353	5,813
	Imports	24,338	25,848	5,728	5,783	5,997	6,830	6,599	6,151	6,099	6,999

of which: Merchanting (net export)	Exports	4,863	3,635	1,129	1,213	1,143	1,378	913	841	877	1,004

Services	Exports	28,282	32,548	6,437	6,922	7,454	7,469	7,230	7,752	8,179	9,387
	Imports	17,832	20,327	4,303	4,315	4,478	4,736	4,812	4,949	5,097	5,469
Transport	Exports	2,390	2,469	395	640	872	483	368	665	891	545
	Imports	564	585	136	136	138	154	150	141	138	156
Tourism and Travel²	Exports	1,008	996	212	269	299	228	201	260	312	223
	Imports	1,158	1,310	289	235	290	344	326	274	335	375
Insurance	Exports	2,542	2,211	664	628	609	641	642	499	513	557
	Imports	1,724	1,871	421	428	450	425	446	501	456	468
Financial services	Exports	5,670	6,558	1,475	1,425	1,393	1,377	1,633	1,534	1,615	1,776
	Imports	4,535	5,958	1,135	1,152	1,137	1,111	1,433	1,414	1,457	1,654
Royalties/Licences	Exports	371	475	81	74	55	161	103	101	116	155
	Imports	330	288	82	78	81	89	67	73	75	73
Computer services³	Exports	8,296	10,969	1,652	1,821	2,242	2,581	2,347	2,439	2,573	3,610
	Imports	220	203	61	44	50	65	42	49	55	57
Business services	Exports	4,400	4,810	1,019	1,132	1,093	1,156	1,159	1,203	1,150	1,298
	Imports	8,706	9,533	2,033	2,093	2,182	2,398	2,196	2,351	2,440	2,546
(of which: Operational leasing)	Exports	728	873	162	200	178	188	230	214	218	211
	Imports	38	163	9	9	11	9	42	43	39	39
Other	Exports	3,603	4,061	939	932	891	841	777	1,052	1,008	1,224
	Imports	594	579	145	149	151	149	152	146	141	140

Merchandise and Services Total	Exports	51,333	54,656	11,866	12,459	13,223	13,785	12,770	13,153	13,533	15,200
	Imports	42,170	46,174	10,031	10,098	10,475	11,566	11,411	11,099	11,196	12,468

Trade balance	Net	9,163	8,481	1,835	2,361	2,748	2,219	1,359	2,053	2,337	2,732

Primary Income	Inflows	18,568	22,412	4,357	5,041	5,137	4,033	5,121	5,792	5,619	5,880
	Outflows	32,832	35,932	6,758	9,222	8,546	8,306	8,038	10,170	9,668	8,056
(of which : Investment Income)	Inflows	18,343	22,190	4,301	4,985	5,080	3,977	5,066	5,736	5,564	5,824
	Outflows	32,509	35,550	6,678	9,141	8,465	8,225	7,954	10,087	9,584	7,925
Direct investment income	Inflows	2,541	2,359	538	714	789	500	294	704	803	558
	Outflows	3,987	3,733	748	1,204	1,081	954	667	1,402	1,073	591
Portfolio investment income	Inflows	11,938	13,546	2,783	3,142	3,086	2,927	3,245	3,491	3,451	3,359
	Outflows	25,238	29,229	5,368	7,176	6,438	6,256	6,583	8,171	7,806	6,669
Other investment income	Inflows	3,862	6,285	979	1,129	1,204	550	1,527	1,541	1,310	1,907
	Outflows	3,284	2,587	562	761	946	1,015	704	514	705	664

Secondary Income	Inflows	1,860	1,289	514	493	393	460	464	256	282	287
	Outflows	1,880	1,376	520	498	398	464	468	279	305	324

Income balance	Net	-14,284	-13,607	-2,407	-4,186	-3,414	-4,277	-2,921	-4,401	-4,072	-2,213

Current Account - Total	Inflows	71,761	78,357	16,736	17,993	18,754	18,278	18,355	19,200	19,434	21,368
	Outflows	76,882	83,482	17,310	19,817	19,419	20,336	19,916	21,548	21,169	20,849

Current Account Balance with UK	Net	-5,122	-5,125	-574	-1,825	-665	-2,058	-1,561	-2,348	-1,735	519
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.
²Under the credit item, passenger fare receipts of resident carriers from foreign visitors are excluded; such receipts are included under transport credits - see Background Notes.
³Covers 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.

Open in Excel: International Accounts Q4 2019 Table 3.1 (XLS 15KB)

Table 3.2 Foreign Direct Investment with UK

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Table 3.2 Foreign Direct investment with UK¹											€ million
		2018	2019	2018				2019
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4

Direct Investment	Abroad	2,342	9,647	-799	1,169	1,140	832	6,791	1,367	180	1,309
	In Ireland	-16,735	-9,949	-3,801	1,479	-91	-14,322	4,053	3,790	-6,609	-11,183

Equity	Abroad	-237	6,232	-1,870	1,279	346	8	5,699	24	-227	736
	In Ireland	-4,917	*	*	659	172	*	1,734	-1,519	480	*
Reinvested Earnings	Abroad	2,035	2,165	515	347	734	439	237	681	728	519
	In Ireland	2,422	2,341	329	853	632	608	283	1,188	770	100
Other Capital	Abroad	544	1,251	556	-457	61	384	854	662	-320	55
	In Ireland	-14,241	*	*	-33	-896	*	2,036	4,122	-7,859	*
1'For Direct Investment, a 'directional' categorisation is used: 'Abroad' 'indicates direct investment by Irish investors in British companies; 'Brirish direct investment into Ireland is indicated by the heading 'In Ireland'.

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International Accounts Q4 2019

Accounts with the UK

Accounts with the UK

Current account with UK shows surplus of €0.5bn in Quarter 4 2019

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