The foreign trade in services of the European Union (EU) has increased by 42% over the last six years, from €569.5 billion in 2010 to €811.2 bn in 2015, according to Eurostat.
ICT and financial services boost EU accounting together for around a third of total extra-EU exports (32%) and imports (35%).
The EU surplus in 2015 was mainly due to surpluses in telecommunications, computer and information services (+€58.9 bn), financial services (+€42.3 bn) and other business services (+€31.3 bn), while a significant deficit was recorded for charges for the use of intellectual property (-€43.1 bn).
In 2015, the main partners for EU exports of services remained the United States (€212.1 billion, or 26% of extra- EU exports) and Switzerland (€116.3 bn, 14%), well ahead of China (€36.0 bn, 4%), Japan (€27.9 bn, 3%) and Russia (€24.3 bn, 3%).
The largest surplus was observed by far with Switzerland (€48.3 billion), followed by Russia (€12.6 bn), Japan (€12.3 bn), China (€10.3 bn) and the United States (€9.3 bn).