Ireland records €12.7bn trade surplus

Ireland had the second largest trade surplus in the EU during the first four months of 2009, according to new figures from the European Commission’s statistics service, Eurostat.

For the period January to April, the value of Irish exports exceeded the value of imports by €12.7 billion.

With a trade surplus of €36.8 billion, Germany had the largest trade surplus among Member States, the data reveals.

Compared to the same four month period last year, Ireland's trade surplus has increased by €4.4 billion. However this is largely due to a €4.2 billion drop in the value of imports from €20.3 billion to €16.1 billion.

For the period January to April 2009, exports increased by just 1 per cent, or €.2 billion.

The figures indicate that during May, Ireland's trade surplus stood at €1.1 billion, down from 1.4 billion in April. The decline is attributed to a decline in the value of our exports from €2.7 billion to €2.6 billion and an increase in the value of our imports from €1.3 billion to €1.5 billion.

During the first four months of the year, the United Kingdom registered the largest deficit in the EU at €31.2 billion, followed by France, Spain, Greece and Portugal.

EU27 trade with all of its major partners fell during the period January to April compared to the same period a year earlier.

The largest decreases were recorded for exports to Russia, which were down 38 per cent, and Turkey and South Korea. During the same period imports from Russia fell by 42 per cent.