![\"Infographic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/002488ea-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nNew figures from the Central Statistics Office show that Ireland’s exports decreased by 13.2% to \u20ac18.5 billion in April compared to the same time last year when exports were dominated by frontloading of pharmaceutical exports to the US.<\/p>\n
The annual drop had been expected, but today’s CSO figures show that exports also fell compared to the April 2024 total of \u20ac19.4 billion.<\/p>\n
The CSO said that exports to the US fell by 45.1% to \u20ac5.1 billion in April from \u20ac9.4 billion in April 2025. Exports of Chemicals & Related Products, which include pharmaceuticals, fell by almost \u20ac5 billion to \u20ac3.3 billion in April compared with \u20ac8.1 billion the same month last year.<\/p>\n
But in contrast, exports to Great Britain jumped by 51.7% to \u20ac1.9 billion in April of this year compared with \u20ac1.2 billion in April last year.<\/p>\n
The CSO said the main driver of the increase was a rise in exports of goods related to Machinery & Transport Equipment to the UK, which more than doubled to \u20ac724.2m in April compared with \u20ac236.1m the same month last year.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, imports in April were valued at \u20ac13.2 billion, an increase of \u20ac2.4 billion on April last year, the CSO said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ireland’s top exporting partners were the US, the Netherlands and Great Britain in April, with Ireland exporting 27.8%, 14.1% and 10.2% of total export goods respectively to these countries.<\/p>\n
Ireland imported the highest value of goods in April 2026 from the US, Great Britain and Germany with these countries representing 12.1%, 10.9% and 9.3% respectively of the total import trade for April.<\/p>\n
Commenting on today’s CSO figures, Carol Lynch, Head of Customs and International Trade Services at BDO, said they show a continuation of last month’s trajectory with exports continuing to decline year on year.<\/p>\n
“Interestingly, however, while we can see US exports reducing, we are also seeing a significant percentage increase in exports to Great Britain – up to almost \u20ac1.9 billion versus \u20ac1.2 billion in 2025; a 52% change. This is to be welcomed considering the tenth anniversary of Brexit on June 23 and the second EU-UK summit taking place on July 22,” Ms Lynch said.<\/p>\n
She said the timing of this increase was very positive given Ireland’s forthcoming Presidency of the EU.<\/p>\n
“While the immediate post-Brexit period was defined by separation, what is now emerging is something more pragmatic: a gradual recalibration towards cooperation, driven by economic reality,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Ireland is uniquely positioned within that reset. As the EU member state with the closest economic ties to the UK, Ireland has both an interest in – and an ability to influence – how this relationship evolves,” she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that Ireland’s exports decreased by 13.2% to \u20ac18.5 billion in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-508950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}