New figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reveal a healthy seasonally-adjusted merchandise trade surplus. The surplus in July was €3,621m, down from the revised surplus of €4,116m (€4,110m) posted in the sixth month of the year.

Seasonally-adjusted exports were down 6.4% in the month at €8,759m while imports recorded a decrease of 2.0%.

Meanwhile, on an unadjusted basis there was a surplus of €4,230m in July, more than double the surplus of €2,102m posted in the seventh month of last year.

In the first seven months of 2015 the overall trade surplus amounted to €26,777m, an increase of €8,695m (+48.1%) on the cumulative balance of €18,082m in January-July 2014.

Noted Alan McQuaid, Merrion Stockbrokers economist: "Comparing July 2015 with July 2014, the value of exports rose by €1,832m (+25.3%) to €9,084m. The main drivers behind the annual rise in July were increases in the exports of medical and pharmaceutical products of €1,139m (+68.6%) and organic chemicals of €389m (+39.4%).

In Association with

"The EU accounted for €5,076m (56%) of total goods exports in July, of which €1,264m went to Belgium and €1,107m to Great Britain. However, it should be pointed out that the trade to Belgium is to a large degree for a destination outside the EU and just passing through the key port of Antwerp."

McQuaid added: "Ireland’s trade performance in the past eighteen months or so has benefited from competitiveness gains made against its main partners and by the weakening of the euro, particularly against sterling and the dollar. Against a difficult global backdrop, the strength of the US and UK economies has been clearly a factor here. And the indications are that these two key economies will perform well again in 2015.

"Last year saw very strong growth in Irish exports, but it will be difficult to increase and actually maintain market share in an ever-more competitive environment even with the benefit of a sharply weaker euro. That said, Irish exporters should continue to perform well on a relative basis."

David McNamara from Goodbody noted: "The big picture is that Ireland’s export sector is still benefiting from the effects of a weaker euro, with surveys pointing to a strong end to 2015 – albeit not quite at the exceptional growth rates seen in the first half of the year."