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International Accounts Q4 2019

Goods and Services

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Trade balance of -€8.7bn in Q4 2019

Ireland’s trade balance at -€8.7bn, all goods and services exports less all goods and services imports, decreased by €30.6bn in the fourth quarter of 2019 over the same period in 2018, due to a decreased services balance.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q3 2017	48.977	28.974
Q4 2017	53.623	30.535
Q1 2018	51.39	33.837
Q2 2018	53.698	35.564
Q3 2018	53.773	34.09
Q4 2018	57.446	37.135
Q1 2019	57.145	38.018
Q2 2019	54.971	38.562
Q3 2019	57.034	37.458
Q4 2019	57.972	38.783

Merchandise exports were €58bn in the fourth quarter of 2019, an increase of €0.5bn compared with the same quarter of 2018.

	Goods	of which International Trade
Q3 2017	20.314	18.005
Q4 2017	22.9	21.03
Q1 2018	22.331	19.49
Q2 2018	24.894	21.245
Q3 2018	25.553	22.304
Q4 2018	30.568	25.572
Q1 2019	24.994	19.803
Q2 2019	26.814	21.313
Q3 2019	23.826	19.5
Q4 2019	28.719	23.623

Merchandise imports were €28.7bn in the fourth quarter of 2019, a decrease of €1.8bn compared with the same period in 2018.

	Q4 2019	Q4 2018
Computer Services	32.334	25.847
Business Services	12.805	11.431
Financial Services	4.42	3.809
Royalties/Licences	2.716	2.913
Insurance	2.681	2.377
Other Services n.e.s	1.991	1.002
Transport	1.68	1.564
Tourism and Travel	1.047	1.073
Repairs and Processing	0.555	0.567
Communications	0.072	0.093

Service exports, at €60.3bn, increased by €9.6bn compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, mainly due to higher computer services exports.

	Q4 2019	Q4 2018
Business Services	62.348	24.658
Royalties/Licences	24.052	19.706
Financial Services	3.984	3.197
Repairs and Processing	2.008	2.102
Insurance	1.898	1.948
Tourism and Travel	1.523	1.418
Computer Services	1.243	1.344
Transport	0.845	0.942
Other Services n.e.s	0.191	0.175
Communications	0.113	0.148

Service imports, at €98.2bn, were up €42.6bn compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, mainly due to higher intellectual property imports as well as higher royalty imports.

	Royalties/Licences Exports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q3 2017	2.948	0.258
Q4 2017	2.872		1.069
Q1 2018	2.54	0.032	1.111
Q2 2018	3.299	0.016	1.407
Q3 2018	3.025	0.018	1.01
Q4 2018	2.913	0.018	0.607
Q1 2019	2.04	0.017	0.355
Q2 2019	2.56	0.014	0.468
Q3 2019	2.599	0.015	0.398
Q4 2019	2.716	0.014	0.332

Please note: The Q4 2017 figure for royalties/licences of which pharmaceutical exports is suppressed due to confidentiality requirements, in addition the Q3 2017 figure for royalties/licences of which information and communication exports is suppressed due to confidentiality requirements.

	Royalties/Licences Imports	of which Pharmaceutical	of which Information and Communication
Q3 2017	15.291	4.227	7.652
Q4 2017	17.869	4.163	10.05
Q1 2018	16.458	3.545	8.858
Q2 2018	17.94	4.152	9.768
Q3 2018	18.076	3.656	10.234
Q4 2018	19.706	4.016	11.748
Q1 2019	18.798	3.877	11.105
Q2 2019	20.591	5.195	11.671
Q3 2019	21.454	4.723
Q4 2019	24.052	4.686

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

Royalties/licences imports were €24.1bn in the fourth quarter of 2019, an increase of €4.3bn compared with the same period in 2018.

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	2018				2019
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4
Services	Exports	180,077	213,132	39,696	43,701	46,004	50,676	46,484	52,678	53,670	60,300
	Imports	185,647	285,986	39,847	44,687	45,476	55,637	47,708	86,090	53,983	98,205
Repairs and Processing	Exports	1,899	2,012	439	463	430	567	488	498	471	555
	Imports	5,452	6,255	976	1,093	1,281	2,102	1,561	1,305	1,381	2,008
Transport	Exports	7,746	7,867	1,238	2,112	2,832	1,564	1,150	2,134	2,903	1,680
	Imports	3,109	3,154	681	733	753	942	767	811	731	845
Tourism and Travel¹	Exports	5,237	5,206	817	1,500	1,847	1,073	774	1,536	1,849	1,047
	Imports	6,270	7,155	1,195	1,566	2,091	1,418	1,403	1,831	2,398	1,523
Insurance	Exports	9,664	10,138	2,547	2,433	2,307	2,377	2,531	2,457	2,469	2,681
	Imports	8,040	8,292	2,139	2,027	1,926	1,948	2,211	2,045	2,138	1,898
Financial services	Exports	15,354	16,071	3,921	3,819	3,805	3,809	3,845	3,896	3,910	4,420
	Imports	12,851	14,240	3,286	3,202	3,166	3,197	3,452	3,344	3,460	3,984
Royalties/Licences	Exports	11,777	9,915	2,540	3,299	3,025	2,913	2,040	2,560	2,599	2,716
	Imports	72,180	84,895	16,458	17,940	18,076	19,706	18,798	20,591	21,454	24,052
of which: Pharmaceutical products and preparations	Exports	84	60	32	16	18	18	17	14	15	14
	Imports	15,369	18,481	3,545	4,152	3,656	4,016	3,877	5,195	4,723	4,686
Information and communication	Exports	4,135	1,553	1,111	1,407	1,010	607	355	468	398	332
	Imports	40,608	50,654	8,858	9,768	10,234	11,748	11,105	11,671	*	*
Communications	Exports	415	329	112	107	103	93	88	88	81	72
	Imports	570	510	139	139	144	148	140	126	131	113
Computer services²	Exports	86,222	110,594	18,723	20,295	21,357	25,847	24,463	27,173	26,624	32,334
	Imports	4,331	4,642	809	1,090	1,088	1,344	1,091	1,083	1,225	1,243
Business services	Exports	38,025	46,269	8,490	8,799	9,305	11,431	10,802	11,158	11,504	12,805
	Imports	72,155	156,100	13,993	16,725	16,779	24,658	18,103	54,769	20,880	62,348
Research and development	Exports	2,988	3,315	607	588	573	1,220	787	637	740	1,151
	Imports	22,901	96,355	3,569	4,391	4,875	10,066	4,370	*	6,812	*
of which: IP related	Exports	692	635	82	*	35	*	185	18	89	343
	Imports	5,353	75,696	124	*	143	*	146	*	1,074	*
Operational leasing	Exports	12,910	14,210	3,015	3,111	3,312	3,472	3,380	3,535	3,593	3,702
	Imports	728	1,105	168	171	197	192	274	270	275	286
Misc. business services³	Exports	22,126	28,743	4,868	5,100	5,420	6,738	6,635	6,986	7,171	7,951
	Imports	48,526	58,637	10,256	12,163	11,707	14,400	13,458	*	13,793	*
Other services n.e.s.	Exports	3,741	4,732	869	877	993	1,002	303	1,176	1,262	1,991
	Imports	687	744	169	171	172	175	181	186	186	191
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 Q4 2019 Table 2.2 (XLS 13KB)

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Table 2.1 Breakdown of Merchandise Exports and Imports											€ million
		2018	2019	2018				2019
Item		Year		Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4
Merchandise¹	Exports	216,307	227,122	51,390	53,698	53,773	57,446	57,145	54,971	57,034	57,972
	Imports	103,346	104,353	22,331	24,894	25,553	30,568	24,994	26,814	23,826	28,719

International trade	Exports	140,626	152,821	33,837	35,564	34,090	37,135	38,018	38,562	37,458	38,783
	Imports	88,611	84,239	19,490	21,245	22,304	25,572	19,803	21,313	19,500	23,623
Goods for processing	Exports	68,196	68,855	15,979	15,884	17,932	18,401	17,500	14,622	18,392	18,341
	Imports	11,514	16,090	2,300	2,831	2,322	4,061	4,308	4,317	3,087	4,378
Other conceptual adjustments	Exports	-1,002	-6,053	-375	333	-200	-760	-1	-387	-2,168	-3,497
	Imports	3,222	4,024	541	818	928	935	882	1,184	1,240	718
Merchanting (net export)	Exports	8,488	11,499	1,950	1,916	1,952	2,670	1,628	2,174	3,352	4,345
¹Adjusted for balance of payments purposes.

International Accounts Q4 2019

Goods and Services

Goods and Services

Trade balance of -€8.7bn in Q4 2019

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