Ireland's February exports to China up over 50 pct

Ireland exported a total of 905 million euros (about 987 million U.S. dollars) worth of goods to China in February, up by 51.3 percent compared with the same month last year, showed the figures released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Wednesday.

In the month, the country's total goods imports from China were valued at 349 million euros, down 13.8 percent over a year ago.

The trade surplus that Ireland enjoyed over China in February stood at 556 million euros, up 363 million euros year-on-year.

During the January-February period of this year, Ireland's total goods exports to China were valued at 1.703 billion euros, up nearly 48 percent compared with the corresponding period of last year, while its total imported goods from China were valued at 829 million euros, down about 5.4 percent over a year ago.

Ireland's goods trade surplus over China in the first two months of this year stood at 874 million euros, up 597 million euros compared with the same period last year.

The CSO figures showed that China was the fifth largest export market and sixth largest import source for Ireland in the first two months of this year. (1 euro = 1.091 U.S. dollars)