DUBLIN, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Ireland's service trade deficit in 2018 went down by nearly 90 percent compared with 2017, according to the latest figures released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CS0).
In 2018, Ireland's service exports were valued at 180.1 billion euros (about 199 billion U.S. dollars) while its service imports were valued at 185.6 billion euros with a service trade deficit of 5.5 billion euros, which represented a drastic drop of over 87 percent over a year ago, said the CSO.
In 2017, the country's service trade deficit stood at 43.5 billion euros, it said.
The sharp decrease in the country's service trade deficit was mainly due to an 11.3-percent rise in its service export value and a 9.6-percent fall in its service import value, showed the CSO figures.
"The increase in service exports was principally due to increased computer service exports while the decrease in service imports was predominantly due to decreased R&D service imports related to intellectual property," Annette Hayes, an analyst with the CSO, told Xinhua.
Ireland's computer services exports remained the largest export category ,accounting for 47.9 percent of its total service exports in 2018, said the CSO.
By country, Britain was the largest market for Ireland's service exports while the United States was the largest source for its service imports.
In 2018, Ireland exported 28.3 billion euros worth of services to Britain while its service imports from the United States were valued at 47.1 billion euros, according to the CSO. (1 euro=1.105 U.S. dollars)
