Exports down 1.1% over nine months

Booming agri-food and services exports failed to cushion a big drop in manufacturing exports to leave the overall level of Irish exports down 1.3% to €46.2bn over the third quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2012, according to the Irish Exporters Association (IEA).

The total level of Irish exports are down 1.1% for the first nine months of the year as the country’s main trading partners struggle to return to growth.

Over the nine-month period, manufacturing exports are down 6.7% compared with the first nine months of 2012, while agri-food grew by 8.6% and services grew by 4.8% over the same timeframe.

“Manufacturing has contributed significantly to Ireland’s economic development in the past – and should be a crucial element of Ireland’s economic future, if given adequate support to compete internationally.

“It is an important source of jobs for people at all skills levels and generates many additional secondary jobs in the transport and logistics sector,” said chief executive, John Whelan.

“We have strengths in a range of sectors including engineering, electronics, biopharma, pharma, medical technologies, as well as food technology, but the competitive situation internationally is being affected by heavy stimulus measures in many of our trading partner countries, and supported by currency depreciation measures in the UK, USA, Japan and China.

“The Budget 2014 did very little to stimulate the Irish manufacturing sector, or balance the international playing field.”

Pharmaceutical exports account for 59% of total merchandise exports. However, there has been a sharp drop in pharma exports over the past few years because of the patent cliff, which has seen many of the blockbuster drugs manufactured in Ireland come off patent and experience a big drop off in sales.

The IEA forecasts that the total level of exports will reach €179.5bn this year compared with €182.3bn for last year.

Exports to the UK were down 10% over the first nine months of the year, although they expanded by 4% in the third quarter. Total Irish exports to the euro zone shrank by 11% over the third quarter and by 11% over the nine months to the end of September. Lower German demand was the main reason for the drop off in eurozone exports.

Irish exports to the high growth markets of Brazil, India, Russia and China were down 8.8% for the year.

“The third quarter performance of our agri food exporters and the services exporters clearly shows that if we can perform this well in relatively unstable times , the future is very bright when we get back to strong economic growth internationally,” he said.