Exports dip by 1.2% in August as trade figures normalise

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that exports declined slightly in August, falling by 1.2% to €15.9 billion compared with €16 billion the same time last year.

The CSO said the value of imports increased by 12.4% to €12.9 billion in August of this year compared with €11.5 billion in August of 2025.

For the first eight months of the year, the CSO said that exports decreased by 23.9% to €138.4 billion, compared to the total of €181.8 billion the same time last year, when many companies were frontloading exports to the US due to concerns about tariffs.

Meanwhile, the value of imports in the first eight months of 2026 increased by 13% to €12.3 billion from €106.9 billion.

Today’s figures show that Ireland’s top exporting partners in August were the US, the Netherlands and Germany, with Ireland exporting 23.7%, 12.6% and 12.3% of total exports respectively to these countries.

Meanwhile, Ireland imported the highest value of goods from the US, Great Britain and Germany with these countries representing 13.9%, 11% and 8.4% respectively of the total import trade for August.

The CSO said that exports to Great Britain jumped by 23.9% to €1.3 billion in August compared with €1.1 billion the same time last year, while imports from Great Britain rose by 11.9% to €1.4 billion from €1.3 billion.

But exports to the US decreased by 8.6% to €3.8 billion in August from €4.1 billion in August of last year, while imports from the US dropped by 20.5% to €1.8 billion from €2.3 billion.

The CSO said that exports of medical and pharmaceutical products slowed by 6.7% to €6 billion in August from €6.5 billion last year, while exports of organic chemicals decreased by 28.6% to €1.5 billion from €2 billion.

But exports of office machines and automatic data processing machines soared by 141.5% to €1.4 billion from €587.8m and exports of petroleum, petroleum products and related materials jumped by 122.9% to €82.6m from €37.1m.

Janette Maxwell, International Indirect Tax Partner at Grant Thornton Ireland, said today’s CSO figures suggest that Ireland’s export performance is continuing to normalise after some of the rollercoaster figures over the past year.

She said that while the drop of almost 24% in exports for the first eight months of the year looks “stark”, it has to be put it into the right context given the surge in exports early in 2025, when many companies frontloaded exports to the US due to concerns about tariffs.

Ms Maxwell said the August figures show an interesting divergence in Ireland’s key trading relationships.

“The US remains our largest individual export market, but both exports to and imports from the US were down significantly year-on-year. In contrast, trade with Great Britain continues to strengthen, with Irish exports to Britain up almost 39% in the first eight months of the year,” she noted.

“The growing momentum in trade with our nearest neighbour in a post Brexit environment is positive to see,” she added.

Beyond the individual country data, she said it was also interesting to continue to watch the upward trend of exports of computers and office machines.

“They have now more than doubled over the course of the first eight months of the year, spiking by over 150% to €12.5 billion. Similarly exports of electrical machinery and equipment have jumped by almost 20% to €10.2 billion over the same period,” she added.