Dublin (Ireland) pr 16: The United States replaced Britain to be the largest source of Ireland's imported goods in the first two months of this year, according to the figures released by Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Thursday.
During the period, Ireland imported a total of 2.3 billion euros (about 2.75 billion U.S. dollars) worth of goods from the United States, up 4.4 percent over a year ago while its goods imports from Britain tumbled by over 46 percent year-on-year to 1.67 billion euros.
In the first two months, the United States also remained as the largest market for the Irish exported goods, with Irish goods exported to the the country up by nearly 15 percent to 9.18 billion euros.
Apart from the the United States, Ireland's goods exports to and imports from other major trade partners, including Britain, France, Germany, China and Belgium, all decreased during the period, showed the CSO figures.
During the January-February period, Ireland exported a total of 25.69 billion euros worth of goods while its total imported goods were valued at 12.61 billion euros, down 3.2 percent and 16.3 percent respectively over a year ago. (1 euro = 1.20 U.S. dollars)
Source: Xinhua
