Cross-border shopping trips worth over £400m to NI
Shoppers from the Republic of Ireland spent well over £400 million on this side of the border last year, new statistics show.
The Central Statistics Office in Dublin estimated a total household expenditure on shopping in Northern Ireland in the 12 months to Quarter one 2018 at €458 million.
The bulk of that figure was spent by shoppers from the border region (€286 million), while shoppers making the trip from Dublin spent an estimated total of €89 million.
The Central Statistics Office estimated the average amount spent by households on their most recent shopping trip to Northern Ireland at €275.
The figures, based on a survey, also included estimates for the frequency of such cross-border shopping sprees by households in the Republic.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, households near the border were the most likely to come to Northern Ireland to go shopping.
Nearly a half of all households in the border region (44.3%) did cross border shopping, while in the midlands the figure was 11.5% and in Dublin it was nearly one-in-five (19.4%).
Food, groceries and alcohol were the most common purchases.
Food and groceries was the most common category among all households who shopped in Northern Ireland (65.8%), while 54.7% bought Clothes, footwear and sports goods, 40% bought Alcohol, and 21.7% purchased cosmetic goods.