Trade in services in 2021 up following COVID slump

In 2021, the EU Member States exported services worth €1 067 billion to countries outside of the EU (+16% compared with 2020). Extra-EU imports stood at €945 billion (+4% compared with 2020). This marks a near recovery to 2019 figures, after the dip experienced in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related sanitary measures.  

This information comes from data on EU trade in services published by Eurostat today. 

Source dataset: bop_its6_det

Since 2010, the EU trade in services balance rose from €76 billion to a peak of €135 billion in 2018, before declining by more than half in 2019 (€51 billion) and further dipping in 2020 (€9 billion). In 2021, it rebounded to €122 billion. 

USA and the UK: leading trade partners

In 2021, the EU’s leading trade partners for services were the United States (22% of extra-EU exports) and the United Kingdom (19%), ahead of Switzerland (11%).

Source dataset: bop_its6_det

The United States was the origin of more than a third (34%) of the services imported into the EU from non-member countries, followed by the United Kingdom (19%), and Switzerland (7%).