EXPORTS MARGINALLY INCREASED by €53 million, up one per cent to €7.38 billion in April when compared with March this year.
According to the Central Statistics Office, imports were up by €169 million (four per cent) to €3.95 billion resulting in a three per cent decrease in the trade surplus to €3.42 billion.
Comparing April 2013 with April 2012, the value of exports increased by €433 million or six per cent to €7.50 billion.
The main drivers were increases of 12 per cent in the exports of medical and pharmaceutical products and 58 per cent in the exports of office machines and automatic data processing machines. The exports of petroleum and related materials decreased by 66 per cent.
Overall, the EU accounted for €4.36 billion or 58 per cent of total exports, while the US was the main non-EU destination accounting for 20 per cent, €1.50 billion, of total exports in April 2013.
Year on year, the value of imports increased by 10 per cent to €4.12 billion. The largest increases were €191 million or 59 per cent in the imports of medical and pharmaceutical products and €106 million or 13 per cent in the imports of machinery and transport equipment.
The EU was the source of 62 per cent of the value of imports in April, with 28 per cent coming from Great Britain. The USA (11 per cent) and China (five per cent) were the main non-EU sources of imports.
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