China has become the fifth largest trade partner of Ireland both in terms of imports and exports, according to the latest preliminary figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of Ireland.

In 2019, the total value of the goods traded between the two countries amounted to 14.18 billion euros (about 15.3 billion U.S. dollars), up by 30 percent over 2018, showed the CSO figures.

Ireland exported a total of 8.93 billion euros worth of goods to China in 2019, up by 63.19 percent compared with the previous year, making China its fifth largest export market for the first time in the country's history.

In 2018, China was the 7th largest export market of Ireland.

In 2019, Ireland's total imports from China were valued at 5.25 billion euros, down by 3.3 percent from 5.43 billion euros in 2018. Despite the drop, China still maintained its position as Ireland's fifth largest source of imports in 2019, showed the CSO data.

The above-mentioned trade figures include Hong Kong and Macao of China, said the CSO.(1 euro = 1.08 U.S. dollars)