Ireland’s trade surplus in November stayed above €4 billion for the third month in row, the Central Statistics Office said today.

The figures showed the value of exports for the month was up by 17 per cent compared with a year earlier, while imports rose by only 2 per cent.

Between October and November, however, seasonally adjusted exports and imports both showed a fall of 1 per cent.

Between January and October exports rose by 5 per cent to €74.7 billion compared with the same period in 2009. This rise was driven by an increase in exports of medical and pharmaceutical products, which grew by 15 per cent, and growth of 3 per cent in organic chemicals exports.

The rise was partly offset by a fall of 32 per cent in exports of computer equipment, while transport equipment fell by 70 per cent.

Overall, the value of goods Ireland exported to the US was up by 10 per cent, while German exports rose by 18 per cent.

The US, Belgium and Britain still accounted for the majority of the value of Irish exports.

In the same period, imports fell 0.4 per cent to €37.4 billion.

Minister for Trade and Commerce Billy Kelleher said he was pleased that the positive trend in the growth in exports over recent months has been maintained.

"This is an impressive performance by our exporters in what are extremely difficult trading circumstances globally and reflect our sharply improving competitiveness," he said.

"The Government's strategy of investing in an export-led economic recovery has produced results and we must ensure that this strategy is maintained."