Foreign trade in services, quarter 4 2022
Continued strong trade in services for the last quarter of the year
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2023-03-03 8.00
The positive trend in foreign trade in services continued during the fourth quarter of 2022. Both exports of services and imports of services increased compared to the same period last year. Imports were stronger than exports, which resulted in a low net balance.
Trade in services is growing
Trade in services continued to increase during the fourth quarter of 2022. Exports of services increased by 23 percent and imports of services by 27 percent compared to the same quarter last year.
Sweden’s exports of services were valued at SEK 274 billion in the fourth quarter of the year, while the value of imports was SEK 289 billion. This resulted in a negative net balance of SEK 15 billion. The corresponding figure for the same quarter last year was SEK -5 billion. The greatest underlying factors for the low balance of trade were the negative net balances for the two types of services use of intellectual property and other business services.
Strong import of intellectual property rights
Imports of the use of intellectual property rights increased by 65 percent and exports by 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022. The negative net balance of intellectual property rights recovered somewhat from the record low third quarter of 2022.
On the export side, both travel and transport increased by 30 percent, other business services by 28 percent and telecommunications, computer, and information services by 14 percent.
On the import side, transport increased by 39 percent, travel with 27 percent and other business services by 17 percent.
| Exports | Imports | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service item | Share in % | Change in % | Share in % | Change in % | |||||
| 2022Q4 | 2021Q4 | 2022Q4 | 2022Q4/2021Q4 | 2022Q4 | 2021Q4 | 2022Q4 | 2022Q4/2021Q4 | ||
| Total | 274 103 | 222 400 | 100.0 | 23.2 | 288 795 | 227 807 | 100.0 | 26.8 | |
| Manufacturing services | 6 549 | 4 657 | 2.4 | 40.6 | 6 091 | 4 802 | 2.1 | 26.8 | |
| Maintenance and repair services | 740 | 818 | 0.3 | ‑9.5 | 4 099 | 3 151 | 1.4 | 30.1 | |
| Transport | 32 779 | 25 198 | 12.0 | 30.1 | 38 619 | 27 892 | 13.4 | 38.5 | |
| Travel | 22 272 | 17 198 | 8.1 | 29.5 | 29 732 | 23 456 | 10.3 | 26.8 | |
| Construction | 4 009 | 2 230 | 1.5 | 79.8 | 4 556 | 4 577 | 1.6 | ‑0.5 | |
| Insurance and pension services | 2 073 | 2 899 | 0.8 | ‑28.5 | 1 968 | 1 672 | 0.7 | 17.7 | |
| Financial services | 13 224 | 9 808 | 4.8 | 34.8 | 7 511 | 4 602 | 2.6 | 63.2 | |
| Charges for the use of intellectual property | 28 434 | 23 190 | 10.4 | 22.6 | 40 252 | 24 422 | 13.9 | 64.8 | |
| Telecommunications, computer, and information services | 66 990 | 58 724 | 24.4 | 14.1 | 42 840 | 36 384 | 14.8 | 17.7 | |
| Other business services | 76 287 | 59 453 | 27.8 | 28.3 | 104 976 | 89 963 | 36.3 | 16.7 | |
| Personal, cultural, and recreational services | 19 134 | 16 853 | 7.0 | 13.5 | 7 440 | 6 278 | 2.6 | 18.5 | |
| Government goods and services | 1 613 | 1 372 | 0.6 | 17.6 | 713 | 607 | 0.2 | 17.5 | |
Revisions
Quarters 1-4 2021 and quarters 1-3 2022 have been revised. The revisions are made due to informants who were missing from the selection frame for the years 2021-2022, even if they were part of the population (so-called undercoverage). In addition to this, new information from several informants has been obtained. The revisions affect all types of services within exports and imports but have had the greatest impact on the exports of computer services. A need for revision remains for earlier periods.
For 2021, exports of services have been revised up by SEK 89 billion and imports of services by SEK 83 billion. Quarter 1-3 2022 has been revised up by SEK 88 billion on the export side and by SEK 84 billion on the import side.
Definitions and explanations
What is foreign trade in services?
The statistics on foreign trade in services is a presentation of all Swedish transactions related to trade in services with the rest of the world. These statistics are reported quarterly and form the basis for both the National Accounts and the current account in Balance of Payments. The section More information contains an explanation on how trade in services in the National Accounts and the Balance of Payments sometimes differ from this statistic.
Next publishing will be
2023-06-02, 08:00.
Feel free to use the facts from this statistical news but remember to state Source: Statistics Sweden.