Brussels, 09/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - According to data published on Thursday 9 June by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, the EU's international trade in services continued to rise strongly between 2010 and 2015. Its exports increased by 42% over this period (from €569.5 billion to €811.2 billion) whilst its imports increased by 43% (from €461 billion to €660.5 billion).
The total surplus in the balance of the EU's trade in services, which continued to grow between 2010 and 2013, decreased in 2015 for the second consecutive year, to stand at €150.7 billion.
The growth in the EU's international trade in services between 2010 and 2015 is around twice as high as that of its international trade in goods over the same period.
Together representing around a third of its total exports (32%) and of its total imports (35%), transport and travel were the main categories of service traded by the EU in 2015, ahead of other business services (28% of exports and 29% of imports).
The surplus recorded by the EU in 2015 is mainly due to surpluses in telecommunications, computer and information services (+€58.9 billion), financial services (+€42.3 billion), and other business services (+31.3 billion). By contrast, a significant deficit was recorded for charges for the use of intellectual property (-€43.1 billion).
In 2015, the main openings for EU exports of services remained the USA (€212.1 billion, or 26% of the total) and Switzerland (€116.3 billion, or 14%), ahead of China (€36 billion, or 4%), Japan (€27.9 billion, or 3%) and Russia (€24.3 billion, or 3%). Its main sources of imports of services also continued to be the USA (€202.8 billion, or 31% of the total), Switzerland (€68 billion, or 10%), China (€25.7 billion, or 4%), Japan (15.6 billion, or 2%) and India (€13.7 billion, or 2%). The EU recorded surpluses in trade in services with all its main partners except Hong Kong (-€1 billion). The biggest surplus was observed by far with Switzerland (€48.3 billion), ahead of Russia (€12.6 billion), Japan (€12.3 billion), China (€10.3 billion) and the USA (€9.3 billion). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)