DUBLIN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Both the imports and exports of Ireland reached record levels in 2017, said Central Statistics Office (CS0), Irish national statistics bureau, here on Thursday.
In a report released on its website, CSO said that preliminary figures for 2017 showed that the country's exports totalled 122.14 billion euros (152.67 billion U.S. dollars), the highest annual total on record.
The figure represented an increase of 2 percent or nearly 2.85 billion euros over 2016, it said, adding that the trade surplus for 2017 was 45.25 billion euros.
The United States was the largest country of export destination with total exports to it amounting to almost 33.2 billion euros, followed by the UK including Northern Ireland (16.42 billion euros) and Belgium (13.34 billion euros).
The total exports to European Union (EU) in 2017 were valued at 62.69 billion euros, accounting for 51.32 percent of the country's total exports.
Ireland's imports in 2017 also grew to a record high of nearly 76.89 billion euros, up 2.76 billion euros or 3.72 percent.
The top three importers of Irish goods in 2017 were the UK including Northern Ireland (18.57 billion euros), the United States (15.63 billion euros) and France (9.62 billion euros).
EU was the largest source of Irish imported goods with imports from it reaching 45.28 billion euros, accounting for 58.89 percent of the country's total imports.(1 euro=1.25 U.S. dollars)
