China becomes major services trade partner for Ireland

DUBLIN -- China has become a major services trade partner for Ireland, according to data released by Ireland's Central Statistics Office on Monday.

In 2020, the combined value of the trade in services between the two countries was 11.99 billion euros ($13.54 billion), up nearly 14 percent compared with 2019.

In that year, Ireland imported 5.01 billion euros worth of services from China, up 23 percent when compared with 2019. This means China was the sixth largest source of imported services for Ireland.

Meanwhile, it exported 6.98 billion euros worth of services to China, up nearly 8 percent year-on-year, making China the eighth largest market of Ireland's exported services.

The services trade surplus that Ireland enjoyed over China in 2020 stood at 1.97 billion euros, a decrease of 427 million euros when compared with 2019.

In 2020, Ireland's total exports of services were valued at 244.1 billion euros, up 6.1 percent year-on-year, while its total imports of services amounted to 306 billion euros, up 8.9 percent.

Last year, Ireland also exported 10.32 billion euros worth of goods to China, while its goods imports from China were valued at 6.55 billion euros, according to the CSO figures.

China was the fifth largest goods trade partner of Ireland both in terms of imports and exports in 2020, showed the CSO figures.