Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mr Richard Bruton, TD, welcomed the latest external merchandise trade statistics, which were released this week by the CSO. The preliminary 4 billion euro seasonally adjusted trade surplus in June is Ireland’s highest ever surplus.
The Minister stated, “I am delighted that the recent good news on the export front is continuing. It is indeed heartening to know that despite the turbulent international markets into which we are exporting, our exports are continuing to perform to an extremely high level. I have said repeatedly that my priorities are to get our costs down, get credit to good businesses, and to support the innovation and R&D agenda. These trade figures show what our entrepreneurs can achieve when the conditions are right, and only encourage me further to pursue this agenda so that we can continue to support export-led growth and recovery.”
The minister was commenting on figures which show that the value of exports in June 2011, at 8.343 billion euro, was up 5.6 per cent when compared with June 2010. Ireland’s Merchandise Trade surplus in June was a healthy 4.473 billion – the highest since June 2001. For the first six months of the year, the trade surplus stands at 21.9 billion euro, compared with 21.2 million in the first half of 2010 – an increase of 3.3 per cent despite the serious economic difficulties affecting the global economy.
Senator Jimmy Harte has also welcomed the news of Ireland’s trade surplus of 4 billion euro, and says is an indication that if we can get the domestic economy up and running, then the export market will be crucial in the future.
“The fact that we have just recorded the highest seasonally adjusted trade surplus ever highlights once again the almost unique potential for Ireland, as opposed to many other Eurozone countries, to export our way towards economic recovery,” said Senator Harte.
Detailed country-specific data for the first five months of 2011, also published this week, show healthy increases in exports to both key traditional markets and to the new high potential destinations above the same period in 2010.
Exports to the United States increased by 11.8 per cent to 9.08 billion euro. The importance of the US market will be underpinned when Minister Bruton leads a trade mission there in mid-September. Exports to the EU rose by 4.2 per cent to 22.3 billion euro in the first five months of 2011. Within the EU, the statistics show that there have been some very important export achievements to countries such as the Czech Republic, where in the first five months of 2011, exports grew by 95 per cent to 235 million euro, and to Sweden, where exports grew by 25 per cent to 345 million euro.
In addition, some high potential markets on which there has been a particular focus recently have shown very substantial growth over the same period, with exports to Brazil increasing by over 9 per cent to 112 million euro and exports to India (where the Minister led a trade mission earlier this year) growing by 30 per cent to 83 million euro. Exports to South Korea increased by 5.3 per cent to 141 million euro.
“Exports to dynamic emerging economies and those of Asia show the benefits of helping exporters concentrate more on these markets. For example, I expect growth in exports to South Korea will receive a major boost from the Free Trade Agreement with Korea that started on the 1st of July,” said Minister Bruton. “These are very welcome trends and show that Irish business is rising to the challenge of seeking out new markets and winning new business. These figures emphasise both the importance of trade to the economy and its potential to be a significant contributor to recovery.”
A further Free Trade Agreement with Singapore is being negotiated. This will help increase trade with Asia further, he said.
The Minister also welcomed the fact that imports over the first five months had risen across a broad range of categories. Commenting on this aspect of the trade data, the Minister said: “These show that businesses are increasing their purchases of raw materials and inputs, which dovetails with the signs of business recovery from the lower levels of economic activity over recent times.”
He said, “The Government is devoting considerable effort to the food sector, which is so important for Irish-owned firms. It is indeed heartening to see that food exports grew by over 19 per cent to 3.15 billion euro, while key high technology exports in areas such as medical and pharmaceutical products grew at a very fast pace. We are strengthening our already leading position in that area.”
According to Senator Harte, these broad-based sectors, which are driven by both domestically-based and foreign direct investor companies, will continue to be in demand regardless of how the global economy is performing.
The Minister also welcomed data released by EUROSTAT, the EU statistics body last week, which showed that Ireland had the third largest trade surplus of the 27 Member States for the five months from January to May, 2011 (after Germany and the Netherlands). It was notable that many of the larger countries had very significant deficits. In addition, the EUROSTAT data showed that Ireland’s contribution to the EU’s total exports to other countries increased by 20 per cent in June compared to the previous month.
