ACRONYMS National Statistics Institute
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20 February 2025

International Trade in Services by Company Characteristics (STEC)

Year 2022

Main results

  • The Services sector accounted for the largest share of services exports and imports by companies in 2022, with 76.9% and 69.0% of the total, respectively.
  • The companies that traded the most international operations in services were those with 250 employees or more. They accounted for 52.5% of total exports and 53.1% of imports by companies.
  • Company services exports and imports were mostly carried out by domestically controlled enterprises. Specifically, they accounted for 59.6% of exports and 52.7% of imports.

The INE publishes today, for the first time, the annual statistics on International Trade in Services by Company Characteristics (STEC), which provides information on the profile of companies exporting and importing services by three variables: their main economic activity, their size and the type of control exercised over the company.

This is another of the new INE statistics that will provide more detailed economic information on the globalisation process. These statistics are based on data obtained through innovative techniques of cross-referencing micro-data from existing statistics.

This technique is applied to the values of exports and imports from the Balance of Payments for services, compiled by the Banco de España, corresponding to “market-producing” agents (companies). Each micro-data item of the International Trade in Services Survey (ITSS) referring to the companies that contribute to the estimation of the Balance of Payments for services is cross-checked with the Central Companies Directory (CCD), as these two sources provide information on the three aforementioned characteristics.

By its very design, a part of the information on the Balance of Payments for services does not come from companies or is estimated on the basis of aggregated data, so it is not possible to apply the micro-data crossing method. Therefore, this volume of exports and imports of services is included in the ‘Non-attributable’ category. This category includes important services as Travel (whose exports and imports account for 92% and 65% of the total of this category, respectively), as well as others that are not fully or partially estimated in the Balance of Payments on the basis of ITSS, or services of organizational units considered as ‘non-market producers'. It also includes the value of exports and imports of services of companies whose cross-referencing at the micro-data level with ITSS and CCD has not been successful for the assignment of any of the three variables.

The non-attributable portion accounts for 48.0% of exports and 38.1% of imports. The results included in this press release by economic activity, size and control type refer exclusively to services that can be assigned according to these characteristics.

Results by sector of the company's economic activity

The Services sector accounted for the largest share of business-attributable services exports and imports in 2022, with 76.9% and 69.0% of the total.

The Manufacturing and energy supply sector (with 10.8% of exports and 15.0% of imports) and Trade sector (with 10.4% and 14.8%) followed behind.

Services exports and imports by sectors of economic activity of the company. Year 2022

Percentage over the total

Results by company size intervals

Companies with 250 employees and over were the most active in the international trade of services. In 2022, its exports accounted for 52.5% of the total, and its imports for 53.1% of the total attributable to companies.

In second place were companies with 0 to 49 employees, with percentages of 27.0% in exports and 25.4% in imports.

Companies with 50 to 249 employees accounted for 20.5% of total exports and 21.5% of imports.

Results by type of control exercised over the company

Company services exports and imports were mostly performed in 2022 by companies under national control. These companies accounted for 59.6% of exports and 52.7% of imports.

Foreign-controlled companies residing in Spain accounted for 40.4% and 47.3% of exports and imports, respectively.

Services exports and imports by type of control exercised over the company. Year 2022

Percentage over the total

Results by economic activity sector and type of service traded

Exports of almost all services products were mainly carried out by companies in the Services sector. The only exception was Construction services, which was mainly included under Manufacturing and Construction.

Thus, companies in the Services sector exported Other services for EUR 53,074.6 million, Transport services for EUR 13,084.3 million and Financial services for EUR 3,511.1 million.

Service exports by economic activity sector of the company and type of service traded. Year 2022

Millions of euros

In terms of imports, companies in the Services sector also led all categories, except for Construction services, which were concentrated under the Manufacturing and Construction sector.

Companies in the Services sector imported EUR 35,889.6 million worth under the Other services category, EUR 6,275.9 million worth of Transport services and EUR 1,417.0 million worth of Financial services.

Service imports by economic activity sector of the company and type of service traded. Year 2022

Millions of euros

Data revisions and updates

The data published today are final. All the results of this operation are available at INEbase.

Methodological note

The International Trade in Services by Company Characteristics Survey (STEC) is a structural set of statistics of synthesis and analysis, whose main aim is to characterise companies that engage in international trading of services in contrast to those that limit themselves to the domestic market, based on three main characteristics: Main economic activity of the company (according to the CNAE), size range measured in number of employees and type of control exercised over the company (domestic/foreign).

STEC is implemented in all EU countries in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European Business Statistics, and its implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 laying down its technical specifications.

STEC disaggregates the values of exports and imports of services from the Balance of Payments for Services compiled by the Banco de España by the three already-mentioned company characteristics, whenever it is possible to cross-reference the Balance of Payments data at the micro-data level with those of the International Trade in Services Survey (ITSS) and the Central Companies Directory (CCD). 

In those cases where the cross-referencing with ITSS and CCD is not possible, as they are the sources that provide the three variables activity, size and control, the category ‘Not attributable’ has been included for each variable, in order to include the value of the Balance of Payments data for services that are not distributable by the three company characteristics. 

Type of operation:
annual continuous frequency.
Population scope:
institutional units resident in Spain included in the population scope of the Balance of Payments of services.
Geographical scope:
resident and non-resident units in the Spanish economic territory that are within the population scope.
Reference period:
the calendar year.
Collection method:
based on pre-existing sources of statistics: Balance of Payments for services, ITSS and CCD.

More information on the methodology and the standardised methodological report.

INE statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics. More information on Quality at INE and Code of Best Practices.

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