The value of Ireland’s export trade eclipsed €9 billion in June with big pharma once again proving the main driving force.

Provisional figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show seasonally adjusted exports rose to €9.09 billion in June.

This was largely down to a €590 million (31 per cent) increase in exports of medical and pharmaceutical products, which totalled €2.5 billion for the month.

The strong performance in pharmaceutical exports has been linked to the launch of new product lines in the wake of the so-called patent cliff.

Exports of machinery and transport equipment also rose by €352 million (36 per cent) to €1.3 billion.

The EU accounted for €5.6 billion or 58 per cent of total exports in June, of which 15 per cent went to Belgium.

Antwerp is one of the largest global drug redistribution hubs and receives most of the State’s pharma exports which are not destined for the US.

The US was the main non-EU destination accounting for 20 per cent or (€1.8 billion of total exports in June.

Seasonally adjusted imports for June, meanwhile, decreased by €213 million (4 per cent) to just under €5 billion.

This led to an increase of €230 million (6 per cent) in the State’s trade surplus, which was €4.1 billion.

The main change on the import side was a €254 million (73 per cent) increase in imports of medical and pharmaceutical products to €604 million.

Imports of other transport equipment, including aircraft fell by €327 million (50 per cent) and imports of petroleum fell by €140 million (34 per cent) in June compared with the same month last year.

The EU accounted for 61 per cent of the value of imports in June , with €1,3billion (26 per cent) coming from Britain. The US with €707 million and China €347 million were the main non-EU sources of imports.