Showing posts with label Irish Exports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Irish Exports. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

16/10/19: Ireland and the Global Trade Wars


My first column for The Currency covering "Ireland, global trade wars and economic growth: Why Ireland’s economic future needs to be re-imagined": https://www.thecurrency.news/articles/1151/ireland-global-trade-wars-and-economic-growth-why-irelands-economic-future-needs-to-be-re-imagined.


Synopsis: “Trade conflicts sweeping across the globe today are making these types of narrower bilateral agreements the new reality for our producers and policymakers.”


Saturday, July 27, 2019

27/7/19: A Cautionary Tale of Irish-UK Trade Numbers


Per recent discussion on Twitter, I decided to post some summary stats on changes in Irish total trade with the UK in recent years.

Here is the summary of period-averages for 2003-2017 data (note: pre-2003 data does not provide the same quality of coverage for Services trade and is harder to compare to more modern data vintage).


So, overall, across three periods (pre-Great Recession, 2003-2008), during the Great Recession (2009-2013) and in the current recovery period (2014-2017, with a caveat that annual data is only available through 2017 for all series), we have:

  • UK share of total exports and imports by Ireland in merchandise trade has fallen from an average annual share of 23.31 percent in pre-Great Recession period, to 18.06 percent in the post-crisis recovery period.
  • However, this decline in merchandise trade importance of the UK has been less than matched by a shallower drop in Services trade: UK share of total services exports and imports by Ireland has fallen from 64.86 percent in pre-crisis period to 62.97 percent in the recovery period.
  • Overall, taking in both exports and imports across both goods and services trade flows, UK share of Irish external trade has risen from 41.43 percent in the pre-crisis period to 45.4 percent in the current period.
  • Statistically, neither period is distinct from the overall historical average (based on 95% confidence intervals around the historical mean), which really means that all trends (in decline in the UK share in Goods & Services and in increase across all trade) are not statistically different from being... err... flat. 
  • Taken over shorter time periods, there has been a statistically significant decline in UK share of Merchandise trade in 2014-2017 relative to 2003-2005, but not in Services trade, and the increase in the UK share of Irish overall trade was also statistically significant over these period ranges. 
  • Overall, therefore, Total trade and Services trade trends are relatively weak, subject to volatility, while Merchandise trend is somewhat (marginally) more pronounced.
Here are annual stats plotted:

Using (for accuracy and consistency) CSO data on Irish trade (Services and Merchandise) by the size of enterprise (available only for 2017), the UK share of Irish trade is disproportionately more significant for SMEs:

In 2017, SMEs (predominantly Irish indigenous exporters and importers who are the largest contributors to employment in Ireland, and thus supporters of the total tax take - inclusive of payroll taxes, income taxes, corporate taxes, business rates etc) exposure to trade with the UK was 51.2 percent of total Irish exports and imports. For large enterprises, the corresponding importance of the UK as Ireland's trading partner was 13.62 percent. 

In reality, of course, Irish trade flows with the UK are changing. They are changing in composition and volumes, and they are reflecting general trends in the Irish economy's evolution and the strengthening of Irish trade links to other countries. These changes are good, when not driven by politics, nationalism, Brexit or false sense of 'political security' in coy Dublin analysts' brigades. Alas, with more than half of our SMEs trade flows being still linked to the UK, it is simply implausible to argue that somehow Ireland has been insulated from the UK trade shocks that may arise from Brexit. Apple's IP, Facebook's ad revenues, and Google's clients lists royalties, alongside aircraft leasing revenues and assets might be insulated just fine. Real jobs and real incomes associated with the SMEs trading across the UK/NI-Ireland border are not.

Whilst a few billion of declines in the FDI activity won't change our employment rosters much, 1/10th of that drop in the SMEs' exports or imports will cost some serious jobs pains, unless substituted by other sources for trade. And anyone who has ever been involved in exporting and/or importing knows: substitution is a hard game in the world of non-commodities trade.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

9/2/16: Currency Devaluation and Small Countries: Some Warning Shots for Ireland


In recent years, and especially since the start of the ECB QE programmes, euro depreciation vis-a-vis other key currencies, namely the USD, has been a major boost to Ireland, supporting (allegedly) exports growth and improving valuations of our exports. However, exports-led recovery has been rather problematic from the point of view of what has been happening on the ground, in the real economy. In part, this effect is down to the source of exports growth - the MNCs. But in part, it seems, the effect is also down to the very nature of our economy ex-MNCs.

Recent research from the IMF (see: Acevedo Mejia, Sebastian and Cebotari, Aliona and Greenidge, Kevin and Keim, Geoffrey N., External Devaluations: Are Small States Different? (November 2015). IMF Working Paper No. 15/240: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2727185) investigated “whether the macroeconomic effects of external devaluations have systematically different effects in small states, which are typically more open and less diversified than larger peers.”

Notice that this is about ‘external’ devaluations (via the exchange rate channel) as opposed to ‘internal’ devaluations (via real wages and costs channel). Also note, the data set for the study does not cover euro area or Ireland.

The study found “that the effects of devaluation on growth and external balances are not significantly different between small and large states, with both groups equally likely to experience expansionary [in case of devaluation] or contractionary [in case of appreciation] outcomes.” So far, so good.

But there is a kicker: “However, the transmission channels are different: devaluations in small states are more likely to affect demand through expenditure compression, rather than expenditure-switching channels. In particular, consumption tends to fall more sharply in small states due to adverse income effects, thereby reducing import demand.”

Which, per IMF team means that the governments of small open economies experiencing devaluation of their exchange rate (Ireland today) should do several things to minimise the adverse costs spillover from devaluation to households/consumers. These are:


  1. “Tight incomes policies after the devaluation ― such as tight monetary and government wage policies―are crucial for containing inflation and preventing the cost-push inflation from taking hold more permanently. …While tight wage policies are certainly important in the public sector as the largest employer in many small states, economy-wide consensus on the need for wage restraint is also desirable.” Let’s see: tight wages policies, including in public sector. Not in GE16 you won’t! So one responsive policy is out.
  2. “To avoid expenditure compression exacerbating poverty in the most vulnerable households, small countries should be particularly alert to these adverse effects and be ready to address them through appropriately targeted and efficient social safety nets.” Which means that you don’t quite slash and burn welfare system in times of devaluations. What’s the call on that for Ireland over the last few years? Not that great, in fairness.
  3. “With the pick-up in investment providing the strongest boost to growth in expansionary devaluations, structural reforms to remove bottlenecks and stimulate post-devaluation investment are important.” Investment? Why, sure we’d like to have some, but instead we are having continued boom in assets flipping by vultures and tax-shenanigans by MNCs paraded in our national accounts as ‘investment’. 
  4. “A favorable external environment is important in supporting growth following devaluations.” Good news, everyone - we’ve found one (so far) thing that Ireland does enjoy, courtesy of our links to the U.S. economy and courtesy of us having a huge base of MNCs ‘exporting’ to the U.S. and elsewhere around the world. Never mind this is all about tax optimisation. Exports are booming. 
  5. “The devaluation and supporting policies should be credible enough to stem market perceptions of any further devaluation or policy adjustments.” Why is it important to create strong market perception that further devaluations won’t take place? Because “…expectations of further devaluations or an increase in the sovereign risk premium would push domestic interest rates higher, imposing large costs in terms of investment, output contraction and financial instability.” Of course, we - as in Ireland - have zero control over both quantum of devaluation and its credibility, because devaluation is being driven by the ECB. But do note that, barring ‘sufficient’ devaluation, there will be costs in the form of higher cost of capital and government and real economic debt.It is worth noting that these costs will be spread not only onto Ireland, but across the entire euro area. Should we get ready for that eventuality? Or should we just continue to ignore the expected path of future interest rates, as we have been doing so far? 


I would ask your friendly GE16 candidates for their thoughts on the above… for the laughs…


Thursday, September 10, 2015

10/9/15: 2Q 2015 National Accounts: External Trade

In the first post of the series covering 2Q national Accounts data, I dealt with sectoral composition of growth, using GDP at Factor Cost figures.

The second post considered the headline GDP and GNP growth data.

The third post in the series looked at the Expenditure side of the National Accounts, and Domestic Demand that normally more closely reflects true underlying economic performance,

Now, consider extern trade.


  • Exports of Goods and Services were up 13.56% y/y in 2Q 2015 previously having risen 14.17% y/y in 1Q 2015. Over the last 4 quarters, growth in exports of goods and services averaged 14.2% y/y.
  • Most of growth in exports of Goods and Services is accounted for by growth in Goods exports alone. These rose 16.36% y/y in 2Q 2015 after rising 16.86% y/y in 1Q 2015. Average y/y growth rate in the last 4 quarters was 18.38%. In other words, apparently Irish exports of goods are doubling in size every 4 years. Which, of course, is simply unbelievable. Instead, what we have here is a combination of tax optimisation by the MNCs and effects of currency valuations on the same.
  • Exports of Services also grew strongly in 2Q 2015, rising 10.34% y/y, having previously grown 10.94% in 1Q 2015 and averaging growth of 9.94% over the last 4 quarters. Again, these numbers are beyond any reasonable believable uptick in real activity and reflect MNCs activities and forex valuations.
  • Imports of Goods and Services rose 16.9% y/y in 2Q 2015, an increase on already fast rate of growth of 15.46% in 1Q 2015. Unlike exports side, imports side of goods and services trade was primarily driven by imports of services which rose 21.8% y/y in 2Q 2015 (+20.7% y/y on average over the last 4 quarters) as compared to 9.0% growth y/y in imports of goods (+13.5% y/y on average over last 4 quarters).


As the result of the above changes,

  • Trade Balance in Goods and Services fell in 2Q 2015 by 1.8% y/y, having previously recorded an increase of 7.4% y/y in 1Q 2015. Combined 1H 2015 trade balance is now up only EUR399 million on same period 2014 (+2.26%).
  • Trade Balance in Goods registered 26.9% higher surplus in 2Q 2015, and was up EUR6.206 billion in 1H 2015 compared to 1H 2014 (+28.4%). Trade Balance in Services, however, posted worsening deficit of EUR5.584 billion in 2Q 2015 against a deficit of EUR2.174 billion back in 2Q 2014. Over the 1H 2015, trade deficit in services worsened by EUR5.806 billion compared to 1H 2014 (a deterioration of 136% y/y).




CONCLUSION:

  1. Irish external trade continued to show strong influences from currency valuations and MNCs activities ramp up, making the overall external trade growth figures look pretty much meaningless. 
  2. Overall Trade Balance, however, deteriorated in 2Q 2015, which means that external trade made a negate contribution to GDP growth. 
  3. Over the course of 1H 2015, the increase in overall Irish trade balance was relatively modest at 2.26% with growth in goods exports net of goods imports largely offset by growth in services imports net of services exports.


Stay tuned for more analysis of the National Accounts.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

16/6/15: Indigenous Sectors and Exports: Ireland's Conundrum


In response to my comment on Irish exports of goods data through April, one analyst suggested that things are not as bleak, citing expansion of industrial production in Traditional sectors as a sign of real economy improvements (as opposed to accounting economy of our MNCs-led tax optimisation exports).

No doubt, the comment is correct. Things are not so bleak as Traditional sectors shrinking. In fact, they have been growing and with them, there has been some growth in indigenous exports too.

Here is the latest quarterly data on industrial production separating Modern sectors (MNCs-dominated) and Traditional sectors (which also include a large segment of MNCs, for example in food and beverages).


Yes, Traditional sectors have expanded. Which is good news. But they expanded at a rate of 20.4% over 12 quarters, while tax optimising Modern sectors expanded at a rate of 78.6% over 8 quarters. Good news is not too great, it turns out.

But what about more recent data? I prefer quarterly series for they provide a bit less short run volatility. But as you might ask, here are comparatives:

  • In Q1 2015, Modern Sectors output by volume rose 39.4% y/y while Traditional Sectors output rose 10.1% y/y. That's almost 4 times slower rate of growth for the Traditional Sectors.
  • In April 2015, Modern Sectors output rose more reasonable 7% y/y (and shrunk 1.1% m/m), while Traditional Sectors output rose 11.3% y/y (and grew 4.7% m/m). That made April 2015 the first month since December 2014 that this happened.
  • But what exactly did happen in April to drive Traditional Sectors output up faster than Modern Sectors output? Modern sector includes the following industrial sectors: NACE 20.00 - 21.20 Chemicals and pharmaceuticals: up only 7% in April y/y,  NACE 26.00 - 27.90 Computer, electronic, optical and electrical equipment was up 44.8% in April y/y; NACE 18.20 Reproduction of recorded media up 34.8% y/y in April y/y; and NACE 32.50 Medical and dental instruments and supplies which goes into "Machinery and equipment, not elsewhere classified" reporting line - up 54.8% y/y. So I am slightly puzzled how did Modern Sector manage to post 7% growth when all components of the sector are growing at 7% or higher. The answer is, of course, in the CSO not fully reporting exact components of what is included in the Modern Sectors. 
  • On Traditional Sectors side, the biggest gaining sub-sector was "Other Food Products" at 13.2% y/y. Which means that the fastest growing Traditional sub-sector was growing slower than all but one Modern Sector sub-sectors. 
Let's set aside monthly figures, and focus on less volatile quarterly production to recap: in 1Q 2015: there is some growth in the Traditional sectors, but that growth is vastly below the 'miracle' growth recorded in Modern sectors...

16/6/15: Irish Exports & Trade Balance: April 2015


This year, we had some pretty darn bizarre stats coming out of the Irish data on exports of goods. April was no exception.

Take a look at the numbers:

  • On a seasonally unadjusted basis, Irish imports of goods stood at EUR4,699.2 million in April 2015, up 9.35% y/y having previously posted a rise of 15.88% y/y in March. Over the last 3 months through April 2015, imports are up 12.57% y/y. Which sounds like a lot. But...
  • Irish exports of goods have risen to EUR9,813 million in April 2015, up 30.08% y/y having previously posted an increase of 20.10% y/y in March. Over 3 months through April 2015, exports of goods were up cumulatively 22.4% y/y. April 2015 saw the highest monthly volume of exports of goods from Ireland on record.
  • Irish trade surplus for goods trade only shot up 62.33% y/y in April to EUR4,484.1 million - the third highest monthly surplus on record. In March, trade surplus was up 27.60% y/y and over the 3mo through April 2015, trade surplus rose 38.2% y/y.
Charts to illustrate:


These numbers are simply not reflective of real economic activity in Ireland and are so heavily polluted by tax optimisation schemes and correlated exchange rates effects, there is little point of talking any more about our 'exporting' economy.


The CSO breaks down (or attempts to explain) some of the farce as follows: "The main driver behind the April 2015 increase was the increase in the exports of Medical and pharmaceutical products of €1,056 million (+63%) to €2,727 million. The exports of Organic chemicals also increased by €560 million (+40%) in April." On an unadjusted basis: "During April 2015 imports of Chemicals and related products increased by €234 million (+25%) to €1,179 million and imports of Miscellaneous manufactured articles increased by €137 million (+28%) to €628 million. Imports of Machinery specialised for particular industries also increased in April by 86% to €225 million." 

You have to laugh here: having created no new serious additional production capacity of any note over the last 12 months, we have rises in output to the tune of 25%-plus. If this wasn't a miracle economy of MNCs, we would be world-beating, record-holding economy for productivity growth, richer than Switzerland and Norway, combined. But do keep in mind, employment in pharma sector has been effectively stagnant for years, just as output of the sector is booming at exponential rates.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

17/5/15: Irish Merchandise Trade: 1Q 2015


Irish trade in goods statistics - the ones responsible for the tax-induced economic dizziness in the National Accounts over 2014 - are back at posting more absurd numbers.

Take a look at data through March 2015:

  • 1Q 2015 imports of goods stood at EUR14,819 million which represents an increase of 10.5% y/y and 18.6% cumulative rise over the last two years. Relative to 2000-2007 period average, Irish imports of goods are up 3.8%. These are pretty large numbers, even allowing for currency valuations. 
  • 1Q 2015 exports of goods from Ireland stood at EUR24,957.6 million, which represents an increase of 17.4% y/y. Yep, apparently Irish exports outputs are growing at a rate that implies doubling of the entire export capacity every 4 years, plus a month or so. No, seriously, folks - at this rate of building manufacturing facilities and logistics parks to accommodate all this stupendous growth, there won't be any cranes and construction crews left in the entire UK and probably none in France either. All would have been busy adding new land to Ireland.
  • Now, we can compute % change in exports per 1% change in imports as the latter are often inputs into production of the former. Even recognising that imports of goods are also growing on foot of improving domestic demand, current exports elasticity with respect to imports is the third largest - lagging behind only two out the last 25 years: 1992 and 2004. What happened back in 1992? Ah, yes, new FDI in ICT manufacturing sector pushed Irish exports by 16% y/y in one year off a low base. It took couple of years thereafter for imports to catch up with this tremendous 'value creation' by stuffing computers and software disks into boxes. And in 2004? Well, that arrived on foot of abysmal 2003, when exports sunk and trade surplus went into largest y/y decline on record. So here we have it: the miracle of Irish exports growth: more of 1992 (tax arbitrage) and less 2004 (post collapse bounce).


Now, take a look at some dizzying numbers for March:


As the above shows, March marked the third highest value of goods exports for any month on record. Year on year, imports of goods were up 14.21% in March after posting 12.08% growth in February. Meanwhile, exports of goods rose 20.85% y/y in March after posting 16.92% growth in February. Trade balance rose 32.61% y/y in March having grown 24.21% in February.

Put frankly, even Google's big data analysts would struggle connecting these numbers to any tangible reality.

Chart below shows shorter range for dynamics.



16/5/15: Russian Trade in Goods: 1Q 2015


Per BOFIT latest data, exports of Russian gas were down 10% y/y in 2014 with total of 175bn cubic meters (bcm) of gas exported. exports to Ukraine were down 44% to 15bcm, to Europe and Turkey down 9% to 126bcm. Russian LNG exports stood at around 14bcm in 2014, virtually unchanged on 2013.

Meanwhile, the latest figures for external trade, covering 1Q 2015 show exports of goods down 28% y/y (predominantly due to price effects - ruble devaluation and lower prices charged). Volume of exports actually rose across several categories, including crude oil (+13% y/y in volume), petroleum products (+24% y/y in volume), as well as exports of copper, fertilisers and grain. Share of oil and gas in overall exports remained largely unchanged at around 2/3rds.

Biggest volume of exports went to the EU, as usual, although value of exports shipped to the EU fell by roughly 1/3rd. Overall, EU received about 1.2 of Russian goods exports with APEC taking 20%.

On imports side, the opposite holds: APEC became the largest supplier of goods to the Russian market as imports from the EU dropped 44% y/y in 1Q 2015 more sharply than the overall imports decline of 37% y/y. Imports from China fell by 1/3rd, but China remained the largest single supplier to the Russian markets with 20% share of overall Russian imports of goods.

Ireland's bilateral trade in goods with Russia also suffered in 1Q 2015. Per latest CSO data, released this week, Irish merchandise exports to Russia totalled EUR78mln in 1Q 2015 against EUR157mln in 1Q 2014 - a 50% drop y/y. Irish merchandise imports from Russia totalled EUR52mln over the 1Q 2015, down only 1.6% y/y. As the result, trade balance (merchandise trade only) has deteriorated significantly: in 1Q 2015, Irish trade surplus vis-a-vis Russia stood at EUR104mln, this has now declined to EUR26mln (a drop of 75% y/y).

It is worth noting that in 2008-2009, Irish merchandise exports to Russia declined 30% y/y over 1Q-4Q period.

Friday, April 17, 2015

17/4/15: Pies in the skies & Irish exports: Jan-Feb 2015



Some interesting numbers on trade in goods for Ireland. As you know, I usually update these series on a quarterly basis - in part due to data volatility, in part due to lack of time. But there is something interesting afoot in the data, so here it is for the first two months of 2015 - subject to future verification of any trend.

Total imports of goods stood at EUR4.563 billion in February 2015, up 11.9% year-on-year, having risen 5.1% y/y in January. This means imports over the first two months of 2015 are up 8.3% y/y. February annual rate of growth in imports was the highest in 9 months.

Meanwhile, exports of goods and services shot to EUR7.937 billion in February, up 16.9% y/y, having posted an increase of 14.2% in January. Again, over the first two months of 2015, exports rose 15.5% y/y.

Trade balance at the end of February stood at EUR3.374 billion, up 24.3% y/y, after posting a 31.4% rise in January. Over January-February 2015, cumulated trade balance is up a whooping 27.7% y/y, and for the December-February 3 months period it is up 31.7% y/y.

These are bizarre and, frankly, unbelievable numbers. Last time we have seen this level of volatility in trade balance to the upside was in August 2012 (for one month only and then, nothing comparable to 41.1% y/y increase registered in December, 31.4% rise in January and 24.3% rise in February).



So something is brewing in the external trade stats. Last year, we had a runaway performance in the National Accounts-registered external trade numbers without having a corresponding rise in the customs reported figures, which was down to 'contract manufacturing' scheme (or whatever you want to call this accounting trick). This time around, either the said scheme is now also polluting our customs trade data or something new is afoot.

The 'new' bit appears to be the 'old' bit - look at the sources of growth in our trade:


and in our trade balance:


In simple terms, ex-Chemicals (pharma), our exports since the start of 2009. Pharma / Chemicals exports are up. Our trade balance in goods, ex-Chemicals is negative. That is right - negative (some 'exporting nation' we are) and pharma trade surplus is vast and on the rise again.

Let's take a slightly more detailed decomposition of movements in trade volumes, cumulated over the last 3 months (December 2014 - February 2015). What do we have?

  • Imports of all goods ex-chemical sectors rose 6 percent year on year, or EUR561mln. Exports of same rose 8 percent or EUR683.6 million. So trade deficit here shrunk by EUR122 million y/y - a good result, but accounting for only 5 percent of the entire gain in trade surplus over the same period across the economy.
  • Imports of chemicals and related products (pharma in broad sense) were up EUR423.4mln or 16% y/y, but exports of same rose EUR2.592 billion or 22% y/y. Trade balance here rose by EUR2.169 billion.
  • So 95% of the trade balance gains in December- February 2015 was down to the category known as Chemicals and related products, n.e.s. (5) and only 5% of the gains were down to the rest of the entire goods-related economy.


And guess what: the 'old' news is truly 'old': the ratio of exports to imports in the economy excluding chemicals sector is falling - steadily, since at least 1995. Meanwhile, the ratio of exports to imports in the chemicals sector, having fallen on foot of patent cliff in 2009-2013 is now rising once again since Q1 2014. Purely as a coincidence, Q1 2014 is when the bogus exports from the 'contract manufacturing' schemes started showing up in the official national accounts data.



Incidentally, the above also explains the miracle of Irish productivity - the massive 'improvements' of which in recent years is nothing more than a pharma (and few other MNCs-dominated sectors, some not included in the goods data and polluting our services data instead) rebalancing into new tax optimisation schemes, post-patent ones.

Welcome to the land where sand castles are sold to visitors as 'de real ting' and pies in the skies are served for desert...

Monday, April 13, 2015

13/4/15: Dublin Port Shipments at New Record in Q1 2015


Some strong growth numbers for Dublin Port volumes in Q1 2015:

Per Dublin Port, the volume shipped now 3% ahead of previous record set in 2007.

Friday, March 13, 2015

13/3/15: Irish Bilateral Trade in Goods with BRIC: 2014


Full year 2014 data on Irish bilateral trade in goods with the BRIC countries is showing some interesting changes to historical patterns worth highlighting. Let's start with country-specific analysis:

Russia: 


Irish exports to Russia (goods only) reached EUR722 million in 2014, up 13.3% y/y from EUR637 million in 2013. Over the last five years, Irish exports to Russia almost doubled, rising 198%. Russia now accounts for 21.6% of Ireland's total exports to BRIC economies, up from 8.2% in 2009. Trade balance with Russia (goods only) has risen more modestly to EUR496 million, up just 1.43%, marking the second highest bilateral trade balance with Russia (the highest one was achieved in 2012 at EUR503 million). Still, Ireland's trade balance with Russia is the largest for all BRIC and Irish exports to Russia now exceeds the combined exports from Ireland to Brazil and India for the fourth year in a row. Over the last 5 years, cumulative trade in goods surplus in favour of Ireland in trade with Russia stands at EUR2.085 billion.

Brazil:


Irish exports to Brazil fell from EUR262 million in 2013 to EUR256 million in 2014 (a drop of 2.3% that effectively reverses the rise of 2.34% recorded in 2013). As the result, 2014 exports to Brazil exactly matched EUR256 million level of exports achieved in 2013. Over the last 5 years, Irish exports to Brazil have grown only 21.2% cumulatively - the second worst performance in BRIC. As the result of sharper contraction in imports, Irish trade balance with Brazil actually managed to improve in 2014. 2014 trade in goods surplus for Ireland's trade with Brazil was EUR97 million as opposed to a deficit of EUR12 million recorded in 2013 and a deficit of EUR260 million recorded in 2012. Over the last 5 years, cumulative trade in goods deficit against Ireland in trade with Brazil stands at EUR7.9 million.


India:


Irish exports to India fell from EUR304 million in 2013 to EUR248 million in 2014 (a drop of 18.4% that significantly reverses the rise of 29.4% recorded in 2013). As the result, 2014 exports to India almost matched EUR235 million level of exports achieved in 2013. Over the last 5 years, Irish exports to India have grown only 56.5% cumulatively - the second best performance in BRIC after Russia. As the result of a small rise in imports, Irish trade balance with India actually managed to deteriorate in 2014. 2014 trade in goods deficit for Ireland's trade with India was EUR154 million as opposed to a deficit of EUR83 million recorded in 2013 and a deficit of EUR130 million recorded in 2012. 2014 was the worst deficit year in our bilateral trade with India since the data on bilateral trade became available in 1998. Over the last 5 years, cumulative trade in goods deficit against Ireland in trade with India stands at EUR673.7 million.


China:

Irish exports to China rose from EUR1,941 million in 2013 to EUR2,111 million in 2014 (a rise of 8.8% that largely reverses the fall of 10.4% recorded in 2013). As the result, 2014 exports to China almost matched EUR2,167 million level of exports achieved in 2013. Over the last 5 years, Irish exports to China have shrunk by 9.4% cumulatively - the worst performance in BRIC. Adding insult to the injury, as the result of a small rise in imports, Irish trade balance with China actually managed to deteriorate in 2014. 2014 trade in goods deficit for Ireland's trade with China was EUR1,370 million as opposed to a deficit of EUR1,150 million recorded in 2013 and a deficit of EUR693 million recorded in 2012. 2014 was the worst deficit year in our bilateral trade with China since 2008. Over the last 5 years, cumulative trade in goods deficit against Ireland in trade with China stands at EUR3,849 million.


Combined bilateral trade with BRIC:


Irish exports to BRIC markets (goods only) rose to EUR3,337 million in 2014, rising 6.2% y/y from EUR3,114 million in 2013 and virtually reversing the losses sustained between 2013 and 2012 to almost match 2011 level of EUR3,324 million. Over the last 5 years, exports from Ireland into BRIC economies rose 13.4% cumulatively - hardly an impressive performance. Meanwhile, Irish imports from BRIC rose from EUR3,900 million in 2013 to EUR4,268 million in 2014. As the result, Irish trade deficit with BRIC economies rose from EUR756 million in 2013 to EUR931 million in 2014. Thus, 2014 marked the worst trade deficit with BRIC economies since 2008. 5 year cumulative trade deficit between Ireland and BRIC currently stands at EUR2,445.8 million


Quite surprisingly, Irish bilateral trade in goods with Russia - subject to EU sanctions, US sanctions-induced lower propensity for US multinationals to engage in Russia, and subject to severe disruption of financial flows, including trade credits and insurance - has managed to substantially outperform our trade with other BRIC economies and expand by 20.8% y/y in terms of combined trade flows and 13.4% in terms of exports to Russia. The reason for this the longer-term nature of our exporters engagement in the Russian markets and more partnership-based approach to trade. Irish exports to Russia are strongly dominated by indigenous, smaller exporters who tend to secure longer-term relationship-based engagement in the market. In addition, Irish exports to Russia are strongly developed in the areas of food production and agri-food technologies - two sectors that saw growth in investment in Russia.

Monday, March 2, 2015

2/3/15: EU Exporters: No More Than 20-30% Will Return to Russian Markets


A very interesting note reporting comments by Russia's head of Rosselkhoznadzor (organisation that certifies food imports and grants food market access to foreign exporters) on the post-sanctions regime for Western exporters into Russia. The full text is here: http://www.interfax.ru/russia/426955 in Russia.

The core point is that head of Rosselkhoznadzor expects the return of just 20-30% of EU exporters back to the Russian market once Russian sanctions on food imports are lifted. And that is 20-30% "at most". Quoting from Interfax report, the head of Rosselkhoznadzor thinks that "Products from the EU will find it difficult to return to Russian markets, because we will be forced to cut back on the number of European producers, allowing only 20-30% of previously active suppliers back into the market. The rest will be able to supply [exports to Russia] only after they restore [market] trust".

In another report (http://www.interfax.ru/business/427220), President Putin's press secretary stated today that Moscow is considering allowing imports of agricultural raw materials that serve as inputs for production of food in Russia, as long as actual production takes place in Russia. The statement relates to the President Putin's promise made in Budapest last month that Russia can expand cooperation with Hungary in food trade. According to the press secretary statement, this can only be done by relaxing sectoral restrictions as Hungary (or any other country) cannot be privileged in trade relations with the EU under the WTO rules.


Подробнее:http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2677352

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

7/1/2015: China Threat: Europe's Exports Under Pressure


Recently, Irish Times run an article about threats and challenges to Irish economic model (whatever it might be - I have no idea), concluding that all is down to 'political leadership' (whatever that might be is also something I can't comprehend). But in reality, a key threat to Irish economy is the threat of changing nature of global production and demand patterns, related to

  • Challenges from China and other emerging economies (which increasingly produce goods and services for global consumption that rival in quality European goods and services);
  • Challenges from growing regionalisation of trade (with producers, including the MNCs, moving closer to the demand growth centres - which are nowhere near Europe); and
  • Challenges from growing regionalisation of investment and capital flows, including financial and human capital (which puts pressure on our funding models for enterprise formation and growth).


There is little in the above that is subject to our policymakers' 'leadership' and much in the above that is subject to our internal market competitiveness.

But, setting aside the above considerations, what is the evidence of the growing threat from the emerging markets economies? Take a look at a recent paper by Benkovskis, Konstantins and Silgoner, Maria Antoinette and Steiner, Katharina and Wörz, Julia, titled "Crowding-Out or Co-Existence? The Competitive Position of EU Members and China in Global Merchandise Trade" (ECB Working Paper No. 1617: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2354238).

Keep in mind - this is ECB, so all conclusions might have been relatively placated or moderated to suit the prevalent narrative that things are going fine for Europe.

In their paper, the authors "analyse export competition between individual EU Member States and China in third-country goods markets."

Top of the line finding is that "competitive pressure from China is strongest for small and peripheral EU members, especially for the Southern periphery, Ireland and Central, Eastern and South-eastern European EU members. While we find no hard evidence for "cut-throat" competition between China and EU countries, we see an increasing tendency of smaller EU exporters leaving markets that are increasingly served by China." And another note of caution: data only goes to 2011, which means that whatever intensification in competition that might have happened in 2012-2014 - the years when European producers saw increased incentives to export due to sluggish growth in Europe, while Chinese exporters faced similar incentives to export due to decline in domestic returns on capital, and changing nature of domestic investment markets.

So some details.

Authors note that "the extent of existent competition between individual EU members and China (observed at the margin of the markets served by EU members) is fairly homogeneous across all EU countries." Figure 1 below (labeled Figure 7 in the paper) "shows that the fraction of trade links where both China and the given EU member are active in two consecutive periods amounts to roughly 62% in 2009, up from 49% in 2001. Thus, mutual competition increased for all EU members."


More per Chart above: "With an overlap of 65% and beyond in 2009, countries like Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark and the Czech Republic face the strongest existent competitive pressure from China in terms of the fraction of markets where they are directly exposed to China. The group of large exporters shows an overlap of existent markets between 60% and 64%, while many small Eastern European countries and Greece only serve between 56% and 59% of their export markets jointly with China."

Out of all EU countries, therefore, Ireland is 4th most-exposed to competition from China. Good luck devising a 'policy leadership' for that.


What about the markets where China is not operating, yet? Authors have the following to say on this: "the fraction of “newly conquered markets”, i.e. newly established trade links by either an EU member or China where the other exporter did not already operate (figure 8 below), declined from 5.6% in 2001 to 2.4% by 2009 on average across all EU members. Thus, with heightened existent competition, the number of new market conquests where China was not active decreased in all countries over time. The decline was particularly pronounced for large exporter such as Italy, Spain, Germany and Finland. But a number of CESEE-10 countries likewise shows a relatively strong decline, such as Lithuania, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia."


Ireland faired a little better in terms of "new market entry" for China risks, but that is because we already face much more direct pressure from China's competition.


Next up, the potential for Chinese exporters crowding out Irish (and other European) exporters.

Per study: "the most interesting type of competitive pressure is depicted in figure 10. The four combinations which are summarized here all represent different forms of potential crowding-out of one exporter by its competitor. …As a first interesting observation, even taken together, these cases are less important than the creation of new competition. However, we observe an increasing trend over time. Furthermore, with 10% or more of all cases, in particular CESEE-10 countries and the small peripheral EU members are especially affected by this type of competition."


And, by the above chart, Ireland is under some serious pressure here too.

The authors disaggregate the bars in the above figure in order to "extract information on the crowding-out of EU countries by China."

"Figure 11 [below] shows the share of crowding-out cases in which an EU country exits a market which China has just entered or continues to operate. …[in] Germany [case] crowding-out is observed for only 4.8% of all trade links in 2009 [see chart above] and Germany crowds out China in half of these cases (Figure 11 below). In contrast, evidence for the CESEE-10 is mainly characterized by China crowding out the CESEE-10 countries (Figure 11), and, furthermore, the incidence of crowding-out increased markedly over time (Figure 10 above). The same holds true for the EU’s small peripheral countries Ireland, Portugal and Greece. In all three countries, 90% of all crowding-out cases refer to their exit from a market where China enters or is active (Figure 11 below). Compared with 2001, crowding-out by China has generally gained importance over crowding-out of China, particularly for the core EU members."


Again, Ireland is under huge pressure here from China.

Overall, the paper conclusions are uncomfortable.

"In general, we find that export growth is mainly driven by the intensification of existing trade relationships rather than by the formation of new trade links (extensive margin)." Here's a problem: Irish policy has been about opening new markets (jumping head-to-head into competition with China and other exporters), instead of maximising presence in the already serviced markets (holding onto and expanding exports presence in already profitable markets). And that is despite the fact that "…the extensive margin turns out to be more important for the CESEE-10 than for the EU periphery, the core EU countries or even China."

"Small and peripheral countries are more exposed to competition from China than the large EU export nations." And Ireland is even more exposed here, since we rely almost exclusively on exports as the driver for growth.

"…the crowding-out potential is considerably higher for the CESEE-10 and the small peripheral EU countries than for larger EU members…" As commented earlier, this is about the need to pursue more intensification of our exports, rather than constantly attempting to chase 'new markets' as the core exports growth strategy.


Finally, for illustration purposes, chart below maps the composition of European exports by category of goods.


Friday, December 12, 2014

12/12/2014: QNA Q3 2014: Irish External Trade: Of Dodgy Numbers & Export-led Recovery


Here is the fifth post on QNA detailed analysis, covering sectoral distribution of activity in Q3 2014.



Now, onto the analysis of external trade figures. Again, y/y comparatives based on non-seasonally adjusted data. All in constant euros.

Exports of Goods and Services rose EUR53.084 billion in Q3 2014 up massive 15.52% y/y, which marks an acceleration in growth compared to Q2 2014 when the same rose 13.05% y/y. Over the 6 months through September 2014, compared to the same period of 2013, exports of goods and services rose 14.27%. This is huge growth and it comes in the face of serious global trade flows slowdown and currency headwinds.

Which, of course, begs a question: what on earth is going on? Let's try an decipher.

Exports of goods posted a print of EUR27.797 billion in Q3 2014, up 18.40% y/y and an increase on already rapid rate of growth of 16.05% recorded in Q2 2014. Over the last 6 months, exports of goods rose 17.20% y/y. This growth contributed EUR3.885 in exports in Q2 2014 and further EUR4.320 billion in Q3 2014. In other words, exports of goods growth accounted for roughly EUR8.205 billion out of the EUR13.317 billion expansion in exports of goods and services.

The balance was delivered via expansion in exports of services. These grew to EUR25.287 billion in Q3 2014, up 12.51% y/y and an improvement on 9.92% growth recorded in Q2 2014.

So exports are booming. Remember, over Q2 2014 these rose by EUR6.185 billion (of which EUR3.885 billion came from goods side of trade) and in Q3 2014 these grew by EUR7.132 billion (of which EUR4.32 billion came from good side of trade).

Here's a problem folks. Based on External Trade statistics, the value of merchandise trade in Q2 2014 was EUR22.833 billion not EUR28.095 billion recorded in the National Accounts. And in Q3 2014 the value of goods exports recorded in the trade accounts was EUR22.123 billion, not EUR27.797 billion recorded in the National Accounts. And more crucially, in National Accounts goods exports expanded at a rate of 16.05% y/y in Q2 2014 and then by 18.4% in Q3 2014. Meanwhile, in exports statistics from trade accounts the same growth rates were 3.64% y/y in Q2 and 0.95% y/y in Q3.

Remember, in Q2-Q3 2014, National Accounts book increases in exports of goods to the tune of EUR8.205 billion. In Trade Accounts, the same figure is EUR1.01 billion.

Of course, the two numbers are not exactly comparable, and there is a normal (or more like average) difference between the two, which is around EUR1 billion per quarter. But here we have EUR7 billion difference over 2 quarters.

Now, we've heard about 'strange' practices of outsourcing production by the MNCs, the pharma companies beefing up cost base shifting and other polite society's ways to create activity where none exists. May be the discrepancy is down to that. Or may be not. May be someone forgot the abacus and decided to count things using Mayan 'alphabet'… I do not know. But EUR6 billion unexplained 'gaps' are a bit too much for confidence building when it comes to reading GDP figures.

Still, let us soldier on.

As you would have noticed from the previous post, our 'recovery' ain't doing too well when it comes to people actually having much cash to spend. But we do have, at least officially, a recovery in exports. Let's chart the two:



And plotting exports and imports:


Chart above shows a curious situation: There has been a massive jump in exports in Q2-Q3 2014, but there has been no corresponding growth in imports. Now, keep in mind - imports include inputs into production of exports. And, oh silly us, they also include consumption goods. So how can there be such a dynamic trailing of exports relative to imports? Answers that are possible:

  1. Imports are not growing or may be even shrinking on the consumer demand side (plausible, given lack of real growth in private consumption); and/or
  2. Exports are growing per-unit of imports - which can only be down to the miraculous productivity growth or in plain terms - tax optimisation.

So, down to trade balance:


Overall trade balance for Ireland posted EUR11.714 billion print in Q3 2014 - up EUR1.536 billion in Q3 2013 (+15.09%) after having posted a rise of EUR1.774 billion (+17.28%) y/y in Q2 2014. Over 6 months through September 2014, Trade Surplus increased by 16.2% y/y (+3.26 billion). Which is mighty impressive.

All of this surplus was down to our huge surplus on the side of trade in goods. Trade in goods surplus rose by EUR2.694 billion in Q2 2014 (+26.4% y/y) and it was up again by EUR2.975 billion in Q3 2014 (up 30.70% y/y). Over the period of six months through September 2014, trade surplus in goods added EUR5.669 billion (+28.5% y/y) to our GDP figures.

Which is huge.

Meanwhile, trade deficit on Services side has expanded in Q3 2014 to EUR950 million from a surplus of EUR489 million in Q3 2013 - a swing of EUR1.439 billion in deficit. In Q2 2014, trade deficit on services side stood at EUR1.193 billion compared to EUR223 million deficit in Q2 2013. This meant that over the period of 6 months through September 2014, cumulated deterioration in trade balance in services in Ireland amounted to EUR2.409 billion.

All in, we have, as the first chart above shows, a robust 'exports-led' recovery. But, per discussion earlier, this recovery is suspect as it cannot be confirmed even remotely by the official trade statistics coming out of trade accounts. As Bill Gross says: "Something's fishy."

Sunday, November 23, 2014

23/11/2014: Half of Irish Growth Miracle is Accounting Trickery?


Those who read this blog, follow me on twitter or heard me speak recently at the conferences covering Irish economy would know that I have consistently estimated about 1/2 of Irish H1 2014 growth figures to be attributable to something strange that is happening between the official trade statistics we get for goods exports and the national accounts estimate of same exports. The gap is massive and is running now at roughly 7 times the historical average gap.


You can also see some of the same discussion here: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ru/2014/10/18102014-irish-economy-state-of-recovery.html

And in print here: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ru/2014/11/2112014-irelands-recovery-economic.html

Now we have another economist pointing the same, except this time via the august Irish Times platform that is, of course, off-limits for myself.

Still, good to see someone else, especially from the Officially Approved Economists' list, is putting forward same arguments via the Official Paper of Record... Here is their link: http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/transport-and-tourism/member-of-fiscal-policy-group-says-growth-rates-artificially-high-1.2011091#.VHAkeF1Tmq%E2%80%A6

Sunday, October 26, 2014

26/10/2014: Ireland's trade in goods with BRICS


Summary of the latest trade in goods for bilateral trade between Ireland and BRICS:


Keep in mind: trade balance is what counts in GDP, GNP and GNI calculations. Data above reflects some impact of the Russian counter-sanctions of July 2014.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

21/9/2014: Ireland's Performance: Some Gains, Some Pains


Last week I gave a quick interview to Swiss Dukascopy TV. The link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Qi9r-7PSE


Here are some of my notes for the programme.


Q: Ireland’s unemployment rate fell to five-year low of 11.5 per cent. Fitch restored its A grade to the Irish economy. Noonan believes the upgrade reflects significant progress made in repairing the economy. 

Ireland has shown some significant improvements in unemployment and jobs creation areas and the economy is now growing, at least in official accounts terms, in part driven by changes to GDP and GNP accounting standards. These are well-documented and there is little point of dwelling on the figures.

However, less noticed is the fact that the latest figures for jobs market and population trends remain worrying.

Unemployment, officially, eased to 11.5% as you mentioned. But broader unemployment remains stubbornly high at 21.6% if you include underemployed, discouraged workers and all others who want a job, but cannot find one. If you add to this figure net emigration of working age adults and those who are not counted as unemployed because they are engaged in State Training Programmes, underlying ‘jobless’ rate reaches even higher. Another problem is that the declines in broader measures of unemployment from the peak are running at just about 1/2 the rate of official unemployment rate declines.

People are still dropping out of the labour force. Official Participation rate fell from 60.5% in Q2 2013 to 60% in Q2 2014. This below historical average of 60.8%. The Dependency ratio rose, albeit marginally, in H1 2014 compared to H1 2013. Over the last 3 years of the recovery, dependency ratio remained unchanged at the levels well above historical averages, some 7% above the average currently.

The problem is that the economy is generating jobs, but these jobs are either lower quality - when they cover domestic sectors of the economy and especially agriculture, or high quality jobs in the internationally-trading sectors, where employment is generally being created for younger, international workers. As the result, long-term unemployment amongst older workers is stubbornly high.

So Irish economy is an economy of two halves: one half is the economy that is saddled with high debt burdens, slow growth and in some cases, continued contraction. Another half is the economy with more robust growth. The problem is much of the latter half is imaginary economy of Services MNCs shifting profits through Ireland with little impact on the ground. The first half - the suffering one - is the real economy.


Q: Ireland has lost nearly a quarter of a million young people in five years due to emigration. This is one reason why some are skeptical about the recovery as they believe that there are still not enough jobs. Do you think we have seen enough evidence, which shows significant improvement in the labour market?

Latest emigration figures are somewhat positive for Ireland. We have recorded a decline in net emigration in 12 months through April 2014. This fell from 33,100 in 2013 to 21,400 in 2014. Much of this is down to two factors: some jobs creation in the economy is helpful, but also due to immigration increase from the countries outside the EU. This is good news. Bad news is that this is the 5th year of continued net emigration from the country, matching previous record back in the late 1980s and 1990s. In numbers terms, things are worse than then. In 5 years of 1987-1991, 133,700 Irish residents left the country, net of those arriving. In the 5 years through 2014, the number is 143,800.

So the crisis is easing, but it still is a crisis. And increasingly, people who leave today are people with decent jobs, seeking better career and pay prospects abroad, fleeing high cost of living and taxes. This means we are losing higher quality human capital.


Q: What other positive improvements in the economy are you expecting to see and do you see any downside risks remaining?

On the positive side, we are seeing continued gains in activity in core sectors of the economy. Especially encouraging are the signs of ongoing revival in manufacturing. Services, when we strip out the superficial figures from the MNCs, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter etc, are still lagging, but I would expect this to pick up too. Investment is rising - not dramatically, but with some upward support forward. Much of this down to booming local property markets in Dublin. This is ok for now, as we have a massive lag in terms of supply of housing and even commercial real estate that built up over the years of the crisis. There is a risk of a new bubble emerging in the resale property markets, but this bubble is still only a risk.  Part of investment increase is also down to reclassification of R&D spending from being counted as a business expenditure prior to Q1 2014 to now counted as business investment. However, some indicators (PMIs and imports flows in capital goods and machinery categories) are pointing to a pick up in investment.

The downside risks are banks, retail interest rates cycle (potential for higher cost of servicing existent debt pile in the real economy - a risk that is still quite some time off), credit supply shortages (credit continues to decline in the economy and now we are seeing some downward pressures on deposits too). Beyond this, there is a risk of misallocated investment - investment flowing not to entrepreneurial activity, but to re-sale property markets - something that Ireland is always at a risk of.

I suspect that Irish economy will continue to grow at higher rates than the euro area for the next 12 months. But this growth will continue to come in at levels below where we need to be to actively deleverage our private sector and public sector debts.


Q: And what are the main trends we are witnessing in the Irish bond market right now? 

There is basically no longer any connection between economic fundamentals - as opposed to monetary policy expectations - and the sovereign debt markets in the euro area. Take Credit Default Swaps markets, for example: Irish CDS are at around 53-54 mark, implying cumulative 5 year probability of default of around 4.62%. That is for a country with debt/GDP ratio of over 120% and relative to the real economic real capacity measured by GNP at around 135%. Take a look at Italy, with moderately higher public debt levels and more benign private sector debts: Italy is running at a probability of default of 8.29%.

The markets expectation is for the ECB to deploy a traditional QE on a large scale through its Assets Purchasing Programme - currently being developed.

Problem is: eurozone (and Ireland with it) is suffering from a breakdown in lending mechanism, lack of transmission of low policy rates to retail rates and credit supply. This is not going to be repaired by a traditional QE. It is, therefore, crucial that the ECB deploys a functional ABS purchases programme and scales up its TLTROs and better targets them.

Irish bond yields were, for 10 year paper, down to around 1.8 percent in August from 2.23 percent in July. Yields declines are in line with the rest of the euro area and its ‘periphery’. Has there been any significantly positive news flow to sustain these valuations? Not really. We are in a de facto sovereign bond markets bubble. It can be sustained for some months ahead, but sooner or later, monetary tightening will begin, currency valuations will change, and with this, the tide will start going out. Who will be caught without their proverbial swimming trunks on, to use Warren Buffet's analogy? All economies with significant overhang of private debt - first, second, economies with significant government debt overhang. Now do the maths: Ireland is one of the more indebted economies in the world when it comes to private debt. And we have non-benign sovereign debt levels. We simply must stay the course of continued reforms in order to prepare for the potential crunch down the road.


Overall, Ireland is clearly starting to build up growth and employment momentum, even when we control for the accounting standards changes on GDP and GNP side. But risks still remain, of course. The next few months will be crucial in defining the pre-conditions for growth over 2015-2016. A steady push for more structural reforms, especially completing the unfinished work in protected domestic sectors and developing and deploying real, sustainable and long-term productivity enhancing changes in the public sector will be vital.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

26/8/2014: On that 'tax optimising' shift in Pharma Sector


To clarify my previous comment (see post: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/2014/08/2682014-irish-trade-in-goods-h1-2014.html), here is the chart showing 6mo cumulative evolution of the ratio of exports to imports for pharma and pharma-related sectors:


You can see the three recent trends in exports ratio to imports ratios:

  1. Based on purple line, there is one regime operating through H1 2008 - with shallow decline in ratio of exports to imports roughly from H2 2002 through H1 2008 pointing to relative rise of imports in overall trade. This is the consumption and construction boom. In H2 2008 we have a sharp rise in exports/imports ratio peaking at H2 2010: the period of collapsed imports relative to exports. Thereafter we have a decline in the ratio.
  2. Based on Organic Chemicals (blue line) and Other chemical products (green line) we have two regimes: between H1 2004-H1 2005 and H2 2008 the two lines are broadly counter-moving. Red line includes some of the inputs into the blue line, but also domestic consumption component. This does not directly imply, but can indicate, rising amount of imports of inputs and rising (even faster) amount of outputs in the pharma sector. The evidence is weak, so not to over-draw any conclusions, it should be qualified. The second period - post H2 2006 through H1-H2 2009 we have a flattening and then peaking in exports of pharma relative to imports of pharma inputs. This is aggressive booking of profits (margin between exports and imports).
  3. After H1-H2 2009 we have rapid decline in the ratio of exports to imports in pharma sector itself, and more gentle decline in related sectors. This, with caveats once again, can signal re-balancing of tax and operational efficiencies away from Ireland being a profit-booking centre to Ireland becoming a cost-booking centre.
There are many various schemes for optimising tax exposures for pharma firms, as well as other MNCs. Based on the aggregate data, it is virtually impossible to tell, which one is operating across the entire sector. But one thing is very clear from the above data - value added in the broader Organic Chemicals sector is collapsing. Worse, it is collapsing at a faster rate between H2 2013 and H1 2014 than in any period since H1 2009. It would have been good if the CSO were to publish more detailed data on this and produce an in-depth study. Somehow, I doubt they can and/or will, however.

26/8/2014: Irish Trade in Goods: H1 2014 results


Time to update H1 results for Irish external trade in goods. As a note: CSO does not provide any information on trade in services except as a part of quarterly national accounts.

Irish exports of goods in H1 2014 stood at EUR44.096 billion, down 0.54% on H2 2014 and up 1.45% y/y. Compared to 3 years average, exports are down 2.27%.

Compared to other H1 records, H1 2014 is up on H1 2013, but down on H1 2011 and 2012. Current reading is slightly behind EUR44.142 billion average H1 reading for 2000-2014 period and well below EUR45.077 billion H1 average for 2009-present.

Irish imports of goods rose in H1 2014 to EUR26.189 billion an increase of 7.8% on H2 2013 and a rise of 5.96% y/y. Imports are now up 7.28% on 3 year average and are at their highest level since H2 2008.

As the result of these trends, Trade surplus (for goods trade alone) has fallen to EUR17.907 billion, down 10.65% on H2 2013 and down 4.49% y/y. Compared to 3 year average, trade surplus is down 13.53%. H1 2014 trade surplus now stands at its lowest level in 6 years.

Charts below illustrate the above trends.



As profit-taking in the pharma and chemicals sectors is shifting toward tax optimisation based on off-shoring (as opposed to booking profits into Ireland), ratio of exports to imports continues to fall from the pre-patents-cliff peak:

Chart to illustrate:


However, a welcome sign of return to growth in exports in H1 2014 compared to H1 2013 means that our trade in goods regime is now out of the 'Pain Spot' of simultaneously shrinking trade balance and contracting exports that it occupied in 2010, 2012 and 2013. Down to continued decline in trade surplus, however, it is still not in the 'Sweet Spot' of exports-led recovery:


So overall, trade in merchandise is providing negative contribution to GDP growth y/y so far in 2014. Let's hope H2 will reverse this.