Vol. 477 No. 1
3 Mr. B. Ahern asked the Taoiseach the trade balance with Britain as a whole and with Northern Ireland over each of the past five years; the annual percentage increase in exports and imports from Britain and Northern Ireland; and the average annual exchange rate of the punt with sterling. [8064/97]
The information requested by the Deputy is given in the following tables which I propose to circulate in the Official Report.
Table 1
Trade with Great Britain (with annual percentage changes.
Great Britain
|
Year |
Imports |
Exports |
Balance |
||
|
£m |
% |
£m |
% |
£m |
|
|
1991 |
4,825 |
1.3 |
4,009 |
–0.2 |
–815 |
|
1992 |
5,133 |
6.4 |
4,407 |
9.9 |
–726 |
|
1993 |
4,928 |
–4.0 |
4,930 |
11.9 |
+2 |
|
1994 |
5,778 |
17.2 |
5,669 |
15.0 |
–109 |
|
1995 |
6,649 |
15.1 |
6,312 |
11.3 |
–338 |
|
Jan.-Oct. 1996 |
5,778 |
5.9 |
5,414 |
4.5 |
–363 |
Table 2
Trade with Northern Ireland (with annual percentage changes.
Northern Ireland
|
Year |
Imports |
Exports |
Balance |
||
|
£m |
% |
£m |
% |
£m |
|
|
1991 |
496 |
–0.8 |
790 |
–3.3 |
+293 |
|
1992 |
468 |
–5.6 |
825 |
4.5 |
+357 |
|
1993 |
417 |
–10.9 |
701 |
–15.0 |
+284 |
|
1994 |
537 |
28.7 |
722 |
3.0 |
+185 |
|
1995 |
650 |
21.1 |
785 |
8.8 |
+136 |
|
Jan.-Oct. 1996 |
538 |
1.3 |
682 |
5.5 |
+144 |
Note: Since the introduction of Intrastat in 1993, approximately 3 per cent of all trade is unclassified by country. The unclassified trade includes low value transactions, parcel post, and some intra-EU estimates. Care should be taken in interpreting changes between 1992 and 1993 in the above tables due to the relatively greater impact of the unclassified trade on the Great Britain and Northern Ireland figures.
Table 3
Average Annual Exchange rate: Pound Sterling per IR£
|
Year |
£ stg per IR£ |
|
1991 |
0.9131 |
|
1992 |
0.9692 |
|
1993 |
0.9764 |
|
1994 |
0.9778 |
|
1995 |
1.0165 |
|
1996 |
1.0257 |
