Hamilton welcomes continued export success in Northern Ireland
Date published:
Economy Minister, Simon Hamilton MLA, has welcomed a continued increase in the strong export performance of Northern Ireland companies in today’s HMRC export data.
Commenting on the results, Minister Hamilton stated: “These latest results from the HMRC which show a 6% increase on a rolling twelve month period is extremely welcome. This is particularly encouraging, given that once again we are the leading region of the UK in terms of export growth and with only marginal growth of 0.2% across the UK as a whole being reported.
"I commend our local businesses as they have embraced the Executive’s focus on exports by expanding into new markets and developing existing relationships further. I am convinced that this continued export performance demonstrates that we are on the right path to establishing Northern Ireland as a truly globally competitive economy.
"I want to build on this firm foundation of strong export performance and that is why I recently launched the Trade Accelerator and a new International Trade Plan both of which will help exporters take full advantage of opportunities in external markets.”
Notes to editors:
- The latest 12 month rolling period (Oct 2015-Sep 2016) exports increased by +6.0% compared to the same period one year ago (up from £6.99bn to £7.41bn).Of the four UK countries, Northern Ireland, England and Wales saw an increase in exports over the latest 12 month rolling period (NI +6.0%, England +0.6%, Wales +0.3%), whilst Scotland experienced a decrease of -7.3%. For the UK overall it was +0.2%.
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