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Services Trade by Enterprise Characteristics 2018

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This publication examines the characteristics of enterprises in Ireland which contribute to Trade in Services. It explores the size, ownership and economic activity of the enterprises trading in service exports and imports. The Balance of Payments (BOP) enterprise characteristics were supplemented by linking the BOP statistics to the Business statistics using a common enterprise identifier. The data used in this study relate to reference year 2018.

While enterprise characteristics in principle covers all service categories, not all services categories can be broken down by enterprise size due to their specific nature. These limitations concern travel, parts of financial services and government services which are not surveyed by Bop and therefore cannot be attributed to a single enterprise. Similar limitations apply to quarterly services estimates which are not attributed to a single enterprise. These quarterly estimates are included for survey non-coverage and for annual returns (from enterprises with low trade volumes).

Service ExportsService Imports
Total189.244189205.586186
Large107.701413125.297948
Medium13.81436712.726677
Small38.30414445.417102
Unknown29.42426522.144459

Key findings

  • Large enterprises (with over 250 employees) made up €108bn (57%) of total service exports (€189bn) in 2018 and the 5 largest exporting enterprises accounted for €86bn (46%) of the total.
  • Large enterprises made up €125bn (61%) of total service imports (€206bn) in 2018 and the 5 largest importers accounted for €86bn (42%) of the total. See Figure 1.1.
  • The Information and Communication sector (J) was the largest export sector which exported €97bn (51%) of total service exports.
  • The Manufacturing sector (J) represented the largest import sector which imported €80bn (39%) of total service imports. See Table 4.1 & Figure 4.1.
  • Foreign controlled enterprises dominated both service exports and imports in 2018, they exported €146bn (77%) and imported €167bn (81%) of total services. The remaining €44bn (23%) of service exports and €39bn (19%) of service imports were provided by domestic enterprises. See Figure 5.1.
  • All transport and travel services were accounted for by domestic enterprises. Figure 5.4 & 5.5.
  • All computer services exports, €93.4bn in 2018, were provided by foreign controlled enterprises.

Next Chapter >> Concentration of Services Trade

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On-line ISSN: 2565-6511