It is an annual measure of local businesses’ trade with markets inside and outside Northern Ireland and measures both the sales and purchases of goods and services by businesses in the non-financial industry sectors.
Northern Ireland Economic Trade Statistics Quick Reference Guide
Current publications and tables
Today’s publication marks the third time that the publication is released in HTML format only, produced using Reproducible Analytical Pipeline (RAP) guidelines. The content and format of the report and tables have changed to make them more user friendly and interactive, enhancing accessibility, and increasing the level of automation in their production.
- Northern Ireland Economic Trade Statistics results 2023
- Northern Ireland Economic Trade Statistics 2023 crib sheet
- Northern Ireland Economic Trade Statistics Interactive Dashboard
- Previous Broad Economy Sales and Exports publications and methodology paper
In addition and reflecting the considerable volume of trade data being disseminated via this release, the NIETS data will now be available via the new NISRA data portal, which has been designed to enhance the user experience (as described below) and remove the need for Excel tables.
The Data Portal will give users the flexibility to slice and dice datasets, run meta-data searches, filter results, plot interactive charts, visualise data over interactive maps, share results and automate processes by reading data via API queries. The outputs follow the Open Data recommendations by providing access to multiple data formats (CSV, JSON-stat, PX, and XLSX).
The latest publication provides results relating to the sales and purchases of local businesses’ during 2023 to markets both within and outside Northern Ireland and disaggregates these results into the value of goods and services sold and purchased.
Headline Results
- In 2023, total sales by businesses in Northern Ireland (NI) were estimated to be worth £97.6 billion.
- Sales within NI amounted to £64.3 billion, accounting for 65.9% of total sales.
- The remainder of sales were fairly evenly split between those to GB (£17.1 billion) and sales to markets outside the UK (i.e. exports) of £16.2 billion, accounting for 17.5% and 16.6% of total sales respectively in 2023.
- Total sales of goods were estimated to be worth £65.9 billion in 2023, an increase of 12.6% (£7.4 billion) over the year. Total sales of goods represented 67.5% of total sales in 2023.
- Sales of services represented 32.5% of total sales in 2023 and were estimated to be worth £31.7 billion, an increase of 10.9% over the year (£3.1 billion).
- Total purchases by NI businesses were estimated to be £62.0 billion in 2023.
- Purchases within NI amounted to £35.4 billion, accounting for 57.0% of total purchases.
- Total purchases of goods were estimated to be worth £49.4 billion, an increase of 7.6% (£3.5 billion) over the year. Total purchases of goods represented 79.6% of total purchases in 2023.
- Purchases of services represented 20.4% of total purchases in 2023 and were estimated to be worth £12.7 billion, an increase of 13.0%.
- In terms of the balance of trade, NI businesses exported more goods and services (£16.2 billion) than they imported (£10.5 billion), resulting in a trade surplus of £5.7 billion.
Current publications and tables
EU Exit analysis
Comparison with HMRC Regional Trade Statistics
NIETS estimates are not directly comparable with HMRC Regional Trade Statistics due to methodological differences.
User Consultation
Background information
- Background information for Northern Ireland Economic Trade Statistics
- Statistical protocols and compliance
Usage, methods & quality and revisions policy
Archive data
Mailing list
If you would like to be added to a mailing list and receive the latest publications on the day they publish please email: economicstats@nisra.gov.uk with the title of the publications you would like to receive.