Concerns despite trade surplus up 11%

There was an 11% increase in the seasonally adjusted trade surplus for March to €3.489bn, although the headline figure masks underlying trends that could cause future problems.

There was a seasonally adjusted increase in exports of €272m to €7.287bn in March compared with the previous month, although there was a €680m decrease compared with the same period last year.

The ‘pharma patent cliff’ was one of the reasons for the drop-off in exports over the past year.