EU services trade surplus decreases for second consecutive year: Eurostat

The European Union (EU) surplus in trade in services decreased for the second consecutive year in 2015, Eurostat, the EU statistical office, said on Thursday.

The surplus stood at 150.7 billion euros (about 170.91 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, compared with 162.9 billion euros in 2014. Eurostat said the decrease is due to a rise of EU imports of services from the rest of the world.

Over the last six years, the EU imports of services grew by 43 percent compared with 2010, from 461.6 billion euros to 660.5 billion euros in 2015, while the exports increased by 42 percent, from 569.5 billion euros to 811.2 billion euros.

This growth in EU's international trade in services over the period 2010-2015 is around twice as high as the growth in the EU's international trade in goods over this same time period, Eurostat said.

In 2015, the services that contributed the most to the EU surplus were ICT services, with 58.9 billion euros, financial services, with 42.3 billion euros, and other business services. In contrast, a significant deficit was recorded for charges for the use of intellectual property.

In 2015, the United States and Switzerland were the two main partners of the EU in international trade in services. The largest surplus was observed in trade with Switzerland, at 48.3 billion euros, ahead of Russia, Japan and China.

Accompanying a significant drop in surplus with the United States in 2013, The EU service trade surplus decreased in 2014 for the first time after the year of 2010. Enditem