Irish and eurozone trade weakening further

Ireland is still expected to turn a record trade surplus this year, despite latest preliminary data from the CSO showing export performance beginning to wane even before last month’s Brexit vote.

Ending a week during which it was criticised and ridiculed for heavily-skewed GDP revisions, the CSO yesterday published seasonally-adjusted trade figures for May; showing a 1% — or €99m — month-on-month decline in Irish export value to just shy of €9.2bn.

Coupled with an estimated 7% — €342m — rise in import value to just over €5.2bn, Ireland’s trade surplus is deemed to have fallen by 10%, or €441m, to just over €3.96bn in May.