Sectoral economic development
2.2.3 Over the last 15 years the industrial structure of the economy in Ireland has changed radically.
Exports of food, beverages and agricultural products have grown at a relatively modest rate.
Its traditional manufacturing sector was largely replaced by one specialising in modern electronic equipment, chemical, medical and pharmaceutical products, which tend to have relatively high value per unit of volume.
This has meant that in physical transport volume terms Ireland has a much greater tonnage of imports than of exports, whereas in monetary value terms the imbalance is in the reverse direction.
Figure 2.2 illustrates that the exports of goods from Ireland in 2005 exceeded its imports by €30billion (50 per cent), though this gap is somewhat inflated by transfer pricing by