Ireland's trade surplus with rest of the world shrunk by 4 per cent in 2005 to €31.9 billion as the cost of imports such as oil overtook exports.
The final tally of goods exports shows an increase of 5 per cent to €88.4 billion in 2005 while imports rose 11 per cent to €56.5 billion.
The trade figures compiled by the Central Statistics Office show that the rise in exports was mainly due to the so-called "modern" sectors of pharmaceuticals and computers while the rise in imports was largely down to the purchase of machinery, transport equipment and fuels.
Once again organic chemicals was the big growth area with exports rising by 21 per cent to €17.8 billion. Exports of computers rose 4 per cent to just under €14 billion.
A geographical breakdown of the trade shows that imports from China surged by 34 percent to €3.7 billion in 2005 while imports from the Britain and the US rose by 10 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.