The EU surplus in trade in services fell for the second consecutive year in 2015 to €145.9 billion, compared with €170.4 billion in 2014 and the 2013 peak of €177.7 billion, according to figures published by Eurostat, the European statistics office, on Tuesday 17 January.
The fall is the result of the faster growth of EU imports of services from the rest of the world – from €602.2 billion in 2014 to €685.7 billion in 2015 (up 14%) – than of exports, which rose from €772.5...