China is Ireland's 2nd largest trade partner outside Europe: official data

DUBLIN, June 21 (Xinhua) -- China is Ireland's second-largest trade partner outside Europe, according to data released Wednesday by Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO).

In the first four months of this year, the total value of goods traded between China and Ireland amounted to 6.08 billion euros (about 6.67 billion U.S. dollars), of which Ireland's exports to China accounted for 3.05 billion euros and imports accounted for 3.04 billion euros, showed the CSO data.

The United States is the country's largest trade partner outside Europe. In the January-April period of this year, total goods imports and exports between the two countries were valued at around 24.5 billion euros.

The CSO figures also showed that China was the fourth-largest source of the goods imported by Ireland, and the sixth-largest market for Irish exported goods in the first four months of this year.

Between January and April, Ireland exported a total of 65.81 billion euros worth of goods, down 5.17 percent compared with the first four months of last year. During the same period, its imports were valued at 46.3 billion euros, up 11 percent year-on-year. (1 euro = 1.097 U.S. dollars)