A review of 2007 by the Irish Exporters Association shows that while exports of services grew strongly, the weakness of the dollar hit exports of goods to the US.
Exports of services last year came to €64.8 billion, up 18% on 2006. Services now account for 42% of total exports.
But goods exports ended with growth of less than 1% to €89.3 billion, after a sharp fall in the second half of the year.
A breakdown showed that the main growth area in services was business services, which grew by 35% to €20 billion. This category covers areas such as legal, accounting and management consultancy, aircraft leasing and power station repair and maintenance.
Computer services exports were up 9%. Companies based in Dublin's International Financial Services Centre accounted for a third of all services exports.
On the goods, or merchandise, side, the main fall came in the US, and the dollar's weakness led to a drop of 7% to €15.1 billion. The UK market returned to its number one position as a destination for Irish goods, growing by 6% to €16.4 billion.
Agri-food exports were up 3%, beverages rose by 2% and pharmaceutical and chemical exports increased by 4%. Computer hardware exports fell by 9% to €17.3 billion, continuing a long-term trend, as multinationals such as Dell and IBM moved some production to eastern Europe.
IEA chief executive John Whelan said we were on a well-established trend towards becoming mainly a service export nation. But he said there were continuing problems with competitiveness for goods exporters, and more needed to be done to reduce costs.
