Xifres de comerç exterior d'Irlanda

Foreign Trade in Figures

Ireland is a very open economy, and therefore very dependent on the international economic situation and vulnerable to external shocks. Trade accounted for 240% of GDP in 2020 (World Bank). Ireland’s main imports are air aircrafts, biological materials, medicine, automatic data-processing machines, oil and petroleum products and automobiles. The country exports mainly biological materials, medicines, industrial raw materials, and medical devices. In 2021, due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the volume of imports of goods and services continued to drop, decreasing by -7.3% compared to 2020. By contrast, exports rebounded strongly, increasing by 14.5% (IMF). The IMF forecasts a more moderate increase of exports in 2022 (+4.1%) and 2023 (+4.5%) and a rebound of imports (+7% in 2022 and +5.5% in 2023).

Ireland's main trading partners are the European Union (the United Kingdom is the main market for imports and the forth largest for exports), the United States, China and Switzerland. The UK’s withdrawal from the EU (Brexit) raises many questions around the future relations between Ireland and its main trade partner. Irish exports are expected to slow down and to suffer from a depreciated sterling pound. The recently introduced higher corporate tax rates may also prompt multinational companies to delocalise.

The Irish trade balance is structurally in surplus. According to the WTO, in 2020 Ireland exported goods with a record total value of USD 179.8 billion, while it imported goods worth USD 98.8 billion. The country exported for 262.3 billion USD of services in 2020, and imported for a value of 295.7 billion USD. According to the Central Statistics Office data, trade balance reached a surplus of EUR 50.5 billion in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of EUR 5.8 billion over the same period in 2020, due to increased computer service exports and goods for processing exports.