International trade in services time series 2012-2016

First results of the development of a microdata time series (2012-2016) on the international trade in services commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In 2016 Statistics Netherlands was commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to develop microdata for the year 2014 which indicates per company if services have been imported and / or exported. In addition, for businesses with international trade in services, the volume of imports and / or exports and whether trade is within or outside the EU. For a large proportion of these companies there is also per EU country available.

The recent research is a follow-up study in which data for the years 2012-2016 have been made using the same 2014-method. Also a time series method has been developed to make the considerations over the years as consistent as possible so that a series is created that is suitable for longitudinal research.

This report also describes the first results based on the new method. For example, the number of traders in international services has increased by 50 per cent from 2012 to 2016, much more than the 9 per cent increase in the total company population. In 2016, 306 thousand companies traded internationally in services, which is 1 in 5 companies in the Netherlands. The sectors that are active in the trade of services, the trade in services for foreign-owned companies, trade in services for independent SMEs and trade in services to EU countries were also examined.