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Published: 18 January 2010

Group business activities pushed up international trade in services in 2008

According to the final data of statistics on foreign trade in services, exports and imports of services increased in 2008. Since the release of preliminary data in June, more responses have been received to the inquiry and the obtained data have been checked. The country distribution of 2007 has also been reviewed against data on 2008 in the tables that are published here. This is because some data suppliers have reported their data by a more detailed country classification for the year 2008 than 2007. The revisions only concern the distribution of foreign trade between countries

In 2008, the growth in foreign trade came especially from increased financial transactions of international groups and concentration of group activities into Finland from abroad. In exports the changes are visible especially in the exports of computer and construction services. In imports the growth resulting from increased internationalisation was dispersed between several items, but can especially be seen as grown imports of research and development services. The surplus from foreign trade in services grew by more than EUR 1 billion from 2007.

Finland’s key trade partners in service exports were Germany, India and Sweden. Correspondingly, key trade partners in service imports were Germany, the USA and the United Kingdom.

As regards exports, royalties and licence fees increased significantly as well. The exports of telecommunications and other business services fell clearly in 2008. Especially the fall in net income from merchanting decreased the exports of other business services.

The growth in imports was divided more evenly across service items. In addition to research and development services, the imports of royalties and licence fees, advertising and market research as well as computer services increased significantly.

The foreign trade in services statistics are based on the survey on foreign trade in services carried out by Statistics Finland.The statistics do not include transportation-, travel-, insurance- and financial services.

Source: Foreign trade in services 2008, preliminary results, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Jaakko Salmela (09) 1734 2953, Marjatta Tenhunen (09) 1734 2927, globalisaatio.tilastot@stat.fi

Director in charge: Leena Storgårds

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Appendix tables

• Imports of services by service type, 2002-2008, mill. euro (18.1.2010)
• Exports of services by service type, 2002-2008, mill. euro (18.1.2010)
• Exports of services by country, 2002-2008, mill. euro (18.1.2010)
• Imports of services by country, 2002-2008, mill. euro (18.1.2010)

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Updated 18.1.2010