Ms Kerry Curran:

That data is not available to us yet. It is difficult to understand in the year the changes that individual businesses are making within their supply chains. We know from our all-island business monitor that many businesses are telling us that during 2021 they increasingly started to trade outside of their jurisdiction as a result of the restrictions and difficulties they had in getting supplies they need to fulfil their business needs. We are seeing greater cross-Border trade in the business monitor as a result of that. With regard to statistics, it is not possible to give a figure for the number of businesses that have adjusted their supply chains accordingly. The changes that took place in 2021, which has seen a substantial uptick in cross-Border trade, is part of a trend that began in 2016. Over the past two decades the average cross-Border trade grew at a rate of 4% per annum but since 2016 this upticked significantly. We have seen substantial growth in 2016, 2017, 2018 right up to 2021, which in itself has seen a 65% increase in the value of trade North to South, and a 54% increase in trade South to North. Businesses are undoubtedly adjusting their supply chains and this is reflected in those values. It is not the only issue that is increasing the value of cross-Border trade of course. There are inflationary pressures within certain sectors and factors that are very particular to our times. The growth in pharma across the Border has contributed significantly to the growth in cross-Border trade value. Much of that is in vaccine and in Covid-19-related products that are particular to the pandemic and not necessarily a feature of cross-Border trade going forward. However, aside from having strong figures that outline the number of businesses that have adjusted their supply chains we can see in the trade data that it is a strong number and a high value being reflected in the CSO's figures released recently.