BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 6. In 2023, the European Union imported services worth a total of €3.344 billion, according to newly published data from Eurostat, Trend reports.
This marks the first release of official statistics on the international trade in services (ITS) by modes of supply (MOS), providing valuable insights into how services are exchanged across countries and the geographical distribution of these services.
Breaking down the imports by modes of supply, the data reveals that the largest share of imports, 60% (€1,996 billion), came from services provided through commercial presence. Following this, 31% (€1,030 billion) of the EU's service imports were related to cross-border supply, which involves services being provided remotely from one country to another without the need for a physical presence.
Consumption abroad, which refers to services consumed by EU residents while abroad, accounted for 6% (€215 billion) of total imports. The remaining 3% (€103 million) were services linked to the presence of natural persons, where individuals travel to another country to supply services.
When examining the data by individual EU countries, certain trends emerge. Greece, Cyprus, and Ireland stood out with cross-border supply accounting for significant portions of their imports—68%, 44%, and 39% respectively. For some countries, consumption abroad was more notable. Denmark, for instance, saw 22% of its imports come from this mode, followed by Croatia (13%), France (12%), and Italy (10%).
The data also highlights that commercial presence was the dominant mode for countries like Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Romania, with these nations reporting higher-than-average imports in this category—79% in Hungary, 78% in Bulgaria, and 77% in Slovakia and Romania.