New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that both exports and imports decreased in July compared with the same month last year as trade flows normalised after spiking earlier in the year due to fears about US tariffs.
The CSO said the value of exports decreased by 5.1% to €17.2 billion from €18.2 billion in July last year, while the value of imports dipped by 0.8% to €12 billion from €12.1 billion.
Today's figures show that the US remains one of the country's top exporting and importing partners, despite a 17.2% drop in exports to €4.5 billion from £5.3 billion last year.
Those US exports amounted to 25.4% of all exports, while the Netherlands accounted for 12.6% (€2.2 billion) of total export goods and Germany at 8.6% or €1.5 billion.
Meanwhile, Ireland imported 14% (€1.7 billion) of all imports from the US in July, making it the country's second largest import trading partner, after Germany with 15.2% or €1.8 billion of imports.
The CSO said that imports of Medical & Pharmaceutical Products soared by 87% to €2.5 billion in July from July last year, but exports of Medical & Pharmaceutical Products fell by 1.5% to €7 billion.
This marked the second consecutive month of falling exports of Medical & Pharmaceutical Products, the CSO noted as the earlier part of the year had seen significant front-loading and stockpiling ahead of new US tariffs.
The CSO figures also show an 8.2% increase in the seasonally adjusted trade surplus to €5.4 billion in July compared with Junes figure of €5 billion.
