Business

Value of cross border trade reached record levels in 2025 says Irish statistics body

CSO: Value of goods sold by the Republic into the north grew at a faster rate than north-south trade in 2025

File pic of a road sign in Aughnacloy, Co Tyrone close to the Irish border.
The value of goods sold from the north into the Republic rose to €5.5bn in 2025, figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) suggest.
By Ryan McAleer

The value of cross border trade continued to reach new record levels last year, preliminary figures from the Republic’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) suggest.

The latest annual data on goods moving in and out of the Republic estimate the value of trade into Northern Ireland grew by 5% year-on-year to €5.44 billion (£4.73bn) in 2025, the equivalent of an additional €238 million (£208m) in goods.

Exports from the Republic to Britain decreased by €306m (£267.5m) or 2% over the same period.

However, the CSO report suggests the pace of growth has slowed in the other direction.

While the €5.5bn sold by Northern Ireland firms into the Republic was €13m up over the year, setting a new annual record, the CSO’s annual figures are not adjusted for inflation, indicating little, if any growth in north-to-south trade last year.

Brexit and the settlement to keep Northern Ireland within the EU single market for goods prompted a major change in the CSO’s ability to measure cross-border trade, largely due to separately identifiable VAT numbers for northern entities introduced from January 2021.

While that contributed to a huge increase in the value of recorded trade between 2020 and 2021, the annual total continued to soar in 2022, amid suggestions of shifting trends post-Brexit.

However, it’s believed energy price inflation also had a significant impact on trade values during that period.

According to the CSO, the value of cross-border trade decreased in both directions during 2023 before returning to growth in both 2024 and 2025.

Overall, the CSO data shows the value of exports from the Republic rising 16.4% to a record €260.3bn in 2025, largely down to a 52% surge in exports to the USA in response to threats of new tariffs.

Exports to the United States fell sharply towards the end of last year, with the €3.3bn exported in December down 41% on the same month in 2024.

Meanwhile, the value of goods imported from the ‘rest of the World’ grew by 18% in 2025 to €47.4bn.

The category includes countries outside Britain, the EU and the USA, such as China.