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The value of Northern Ireland goods exports to the Republic of Ireland increased by 7% to just under €1.5bn (£1.32bn) in 2018 according to official figures.

The figures were compiled by Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The Republic is NI's biggest external market outside Great Britain.

A different set of figures produced by Northern Ireland's statistics agency, Nisra, puts a much higher value on NI exports to the Republic.

The most recent Nisra figures suggests that annual sales to the Republic are worth almost £4bn.

The big gap is explained by methodological differences used in compiling the two sets of figures.

The CSO data also suggests that the value of Republic of Ireland goods exports to Northern Ireland increased by 4% to just over €2bn (£1.76bn) last year.

The value of Irish goods exports to Great Britain was just over €14bn (£12.3bn), a decrease of €441m (£387m) - or 3% - compared with 2017.

Goods imports from Great Britain were €18.3bn (£16.1bn) an increase of €811m (£712m) - or 5% - when compared with 2017.