Minister Costello welcomes positive export figures

19 January 2012

by Cllr Joe Costello

The Minister for Trade and Development, Joe Costello, T.D., has welcomed Ireland's latest external trade figures, released today by the CSO. He commented that exports are continuing on a positive trend, increasing by 4% for the first ten months of 2011 when compared with the same period in 2010.

The Minister particularly welcomed the increase in trade with newer markets such as South Africa and Saudi Arabia. He noted that his predecessor, Minister of State Jan O'Sullivan, T.D., led trade missions to both of these countries in the second half of 2011.

The Minister said: "The promotion of Irish goods and services overseas through trade missions and other promotional activity is more important than ever in the context of the export-led growth which is crucial to our economic recovery. I look forward to leading a number of trade missions to some of our key export markets in 2012."

The Minister also said the figures will be discussed at the next meeting of the Export Trade Council. The Council was established to drive forward implementation of the Government's Trade Strategy, Trading and Investing in a Smart Economy.