2008
- A full copy of the review document is available here
- Key points follow:
Irish Exports – A Year End Review 2007
The Irish Exporters Association (IEA) today 3 January 2008 released its year end review, with news of robust growth in services exports, but continued difficulties for merchandise exporters.
The key features of the review are:
Services Exports
- Services export growth of 18%, bringing services trade to €64.8 billion for the year 2007. This is 42% of total exports and points to a growing move towards services as the main export sector over the next decade.
- Growth in services exports mainly coming from business services which increased by 35% to €20 billion.
- Business services included:
- €7.5 billion of trade related services for aircraft, engine and power station maintenance, repair and installation.
- €5.2 billion of aircraft and ship leasing and chartering.
- €7.3 billion of legal, accounting and management consultancy.
- The second largest service export sector is computer services, and sales increased by 9% to €18.3 billion in the year. (This figure excludes embedded software in pcs (personal computers appear as part of merchandise exports).
- IFSC companies accounted for 33% of total services exports. Made up of:
Financial services of €7.3 billion, up 18%
Insurance services of €9.2 billion, up 4%
Miscellaneous services of €4.7 billion
John Whelan, Chief Executive of the Irish Exporters Association stated at the release of the review;
“Services exporters out of Ireland have had a tremendous year, growing at a 50% faster rate than the global market.” He further stated;
“Services exports now account for 42% of our total exports. The trend is clear,” he said. “We are now on a well-established trend, characteristic of the highly developed economies, of becoming mainly a service export nation.”
Merchandise Exports
- Merchandise exports fell sharply in the second half of the year, to close with less than 1% overall growth in the year. Total merchandise exports for the year were 89.3 billion euro.
- The main market loss was in the USA where the US dollar’s depreciation against the euro took its toll on Irish exports. In 2007, Irish exports to the USA fell by 7%, a loss of €1.1 billion, to close off at €15.1 billion.
- The UK returned to number one position as the largest export market for Irish traders. Merchandise exports to the UK grew by 6% to a total of €16.4 billion.
- Agri-Food exports were up 3% to €7.2 billion and beverage exports increased by 2% to €1.3 billion. The prospects for 2008 are particularly good for the agri-food sector, as global prices are expected to continue their growth following the upward commodity price shift in 2007.
- Computer hardware exports continued their long term decline in 2007 and fell by 9% to €17.3 billion. A loss of €1.8 billion over the twelve months exports was due to Dell’s Polish plant coming on line in 2007 and IBM’s Hungarian plant taking away an increased supply line to Asia from the Irish facility. Both moves reflect price pressure globally and the need to reduce manufacturing costs.
- The Pharmaceutical/Chemical sector continued to grow and increased its exports by 4% to €43.5 billion, and now accounts for 49% of total merchandise exports.
John Whelan, IEA Chief Executive, said in relation to the merchandise export review;
“World trade was at an all time high in 2007, and hence the low growth of Irish export merchandise is more worrying and points to ongoing competitiveness difficulties.”
He went on to say;
“We need to nurture the key merchandise sectors which are growing globally. Both the Life Sciences sector and the Computer sector are growing very rapidly on a global scale. In Ireland, we must ensure the most comprehensive, efficient infrastructure is there to support companies in these sectors. The loss that Ireland has seen in export computer sales is particularly worrying and should be a wake up call for Government.” He concluded by saying “more must be done to reduce our manufacturing cost base and improve our supply chain infrastructure”.
End.
For further information, please contact:
John F. Whelan, Chief Executive, Irish Exporters Association
Mobile: 087 927 1243 or Email: jfwhelan@irishexporters.ie
About the Irish Exporters Association (IEA)
The IEA represents the needs of export industry ensuring that the necessary conditions are created and the necessary support is provided to assist companies to maximise their export sales. The IEA draws its membership from every exporting sector, ensuring that the interests of all industries are represented and promoted at the highest level.
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