UK trade in services by partner country experimental data: April to June 2018

• This release covers all the UK economy’s trade in services, presenting UK trade in services by 67 countries and 31 service types; this supersedes our previous quarterly release which only used data from the International Trade in Services Survey.

• The value of UK exports and imports of services increased in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2018.

• The European Union (EU) remained the UK’s largest trading partner for both exports and imports of services in Quarter 2 2018, while the US was the largest trading partner when considering individual countries.

• Other business services not included elsewhere was the largest export service type in Quarter 2 2018.

• Imports of travel services has seen a 34.6% increase in Quarter 2 2018 compared with Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018, with Spain being the UK’s largest import trading partner of travel services.

• By top-level service types, exports to EU countries were similar to exports to non-EU countries in 2017.

• Imports of travel services from the EU accounted for 42.0% of total EU imports in 2017 and imports of other business services from non-EU countries accounted for 27.6% of total non-EU imports.

This release covers all the UK economy’s trade in services superseding our previous quarterly release, which included only those industries surveyed by our International Trade in Services Survey (ITIS). ITIS accounts for approximately 58% and 45% of total UK trade in services exports and imports respectively. ITIS does not include industries in travel; transport; banking and other financial institutions; higher education; charities; and most activities within the legal profession.

The UK trade in services data has been produced as part of planned improvements to our trade statistics described in section 3.3 of the trade development plan. In response to user needs, one of our main priorities is to publish detailed trade figures across more dimensions than we do currently; for example, across industries, geographic trade partners and service types. A large focus for the trade development plan is also making improvements to the quality of the trade figures.

This release contains more detailed service types by partner country than has ever been available before with 31 service types by 67 countries. While we currently publish service type by partner country annually in Pink Book, we have increased the level of detail available and produced quarterly data for Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2016 to Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2018.

We have made significant quality improvements to the UK trade in services by partner country experimental dataset. This was partly through fuller use of the improved quarterly country breakdown derived from the increased and optimised quarterly ITIS survey. In order to deliver at the pace required, the data are closely aligned to the Balance of Payments but are not fully consistent. Improvements that have been made for Quarter 1 2017 to Quarter 2 2018 will be included within the next Balance of Payments release in December. The improvements in the 2016 data will be incorporated into Pink Book 2019, the first opportunity to revise this time period within the wider accounts.

Estimates derived from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) are used to help measure exports and imports of travel services. The International Passenger Survey (IPS) has recently transferred data collection from paper forms to tablet computers. While initial analysis of the new data found no detectible discontinuities, we are continuing to check the data. Therefore, headline trade and other national accounts estimates will continue to include some forecast data for exports and imports of travel services in the most recent periods. More information is available in the Overseas travel and tourism release.

Data are provided in as much detail as possible without disclosing the details of any individual companies, however, this means some figures have been suppressed to protect confidentiality.

You are advised to be cautious when interpreting changes between quarters given that the series are not seasonally adjusted and few data points are presented.

The value of UK exports of services increased from £66.9 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018, to £72.3 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2018, an increase of 8.0%, as shown in Table 1.

The value of UK imports of services increased by 10.3% over the same period, from £39.0 billion in Quarter 1 2018 to £43.1 billion in Quarter 2 2018.

Both exports and imports of services were higher in Quarter 2 2018 compared with the same quarter a year ago. Exports rose by 5.4%, from £68.6 billion in Quarter 2 2017 to £72.3 billion in Quarter 2 2018. The percentage of imports increased by slightly more, rising by 5.9% from £40.7 billion in Quarter 2 2017 to £43.1 billion in Quarter 2 2018.

The value of services exports for Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2018 increased to all geographical regions. The largest increase between Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018 and Quarter 2 2018 was for exports to the EU, which rose by £2.3 billion; from £27.6 billion to £29.9 billion. This was largely due to increases to Ireland and Italy, most notably in exports of other business services not included elsewhere and personal travel respectively.

Other business services not included elsewhere includes distribution services (water, steam, gas, petroleum) and electricity where provided separately from transmission; air conditioning supply; placement of personnel; security and investigative services; translation and interpretation; photographic services; building cleaning; real estate services to businesses; and any other business services that cannot be classified within other business services.

America saw an increase of £1.5 billion, primarily driven by other business services to the US which increased by £0.7 billion. Asia, Non-EU Europe, Australasia and Oceania and Africa all saw increases in exports of less than £0.9 billion.

It is important to note that these estimates for UK services exports are not seasonally adjusted. Therefore, some variation from quarter to quarter will be explained by the time of the year, where trade in some services could be more common than at other times of the year.

Compared with the same quarter a year ago, exports to the EU saw the largest increase of the geographical regions, rising from £28.1 billion in Quarter 2 2017 to £29.9 billion in Quarter 2 2018. This was primarily driven by an increase in exports to Ireland of other business services not included elsewhere.

Exports to America increased by £1.7 billion in Quarter 2 2018 compared with Quarter 2 2017. Service exports of legal, accounting, management consulting and public relations to the US accounted for £0.9 billion of this increase.

The value of exports to the UK’s top 10 export destinations increased in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2018 compared with Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018. The only exception was exports to Switzerland which decreased by £0.2 billion.

The US remains the UK’s largest export partner, accounting for £15.2 billion, or 21.0% of all UK exports of services in Quarter 2 2018, as shown in Table 2. The value of exports to Germany was the second highest at £4.9 billion, with exports to France the third-highest destination at £4.5 billion. Exports to Germany and France were equivalent to 6.7% and 6.1% of total UK services exports, respectively. Taken together, UK exports to the top three countries accounted for 33.9% of all UK services exports.

Other business services, which includes research and development; professional and management consulting services; and technical, trade-related and other business services not included elsewhere, was the largest service type export accounting for 28.0% in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2018 of total services exports. This percentage share has remained constant from Quarter 2 2017, showing it is consistently a strong export service for the UK.

Financial services exports, the second-largest export type, has grown slightly between Quarter 2 2018 and Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018; from £15.3 billion to £16.0 billion.

Travel saw the largest growth of 51.2% in Quarter 2 2018 compared with Quarter 1 2018 after seeing a 25.6% fall in the previous quarter.

Figure 2 shows the value for each component of other business services in Quarter 2 2018. Other business services not included elsewhere accounted for 36.7% of total exports of other business services, followed by legal, accounting, management consulting and public relations which made up 28.2%.

Legal, accounting, management consulting and public relations is a sub-component of professional and management consulting services.

In Quarter 2 2018 the US was the largest export partner for other business services, accounting for 28.7%. The £5.8 billion export of other business services to the US was primarily driven by £2.0 billion of legal, accounting, management consulting and public relations.

Ireland was the second-largest export partner for other business services, followed by the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany, as shown in Figure 3. The top five export partners accounted for 58.8% of total exports of other business services.

Imports of services increased in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2018 compared with Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018 for all geographical regions, except Africa which saw a small decrease. Of all the geographical regions presented in Figure 4, imports from the EU increased the most over the quarter from £18.6 billion to £21.8 billion; a rise of £3.2 billion. This increase was driven by imports of personal travel services from Spain of £0.7 billion.

Imports of travel covers goods and services provided to UK residents during visits abroad of less than one year, excluding students and medical patients who remain residents of their country of origin, even if the length of stay in another economy is more than a year.

Service imports from the Americas also increased in Quarter 2 2018; from £8.6 billion to £9.0 billion. The increase of £0.5 billion was mainly due to imports of travel services from the US.

Compared with the same quarter a year ago, imports from the EU saw the largest increase of £2.3 billion, rising from £19.5 billion in Quarter 2 2017 to £21.8 billion in Quarter 2 2018. Service imports from Ireland and Spain saw the largest increases of £0.5 billion and £0.4 billion respectively.

Imports from America saw the largest decrease of £0.4 billion in Quarter 2 2018 compared with Quarter 2 2017. Service imports of other business services not included elsewhere from the US decreased by £0.6 billion; going from £1.9 billion in Quarter 2 2017 to £1.3 billion in Quarter 2 2018.

The value of imports to the UK from the UK’s top 10 import destinations increased in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2018 compared with Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018. The only exceptions were imports from Japan and India, which decreased by very small amounts.

The US remains the UK’s largest import partner, accounting for £7.1 billion, or 16.5% of imports of services. The value of imports from Spain was the second highest, with imports from France the third highest. Imports from Spain and France were equivalent to 9.1% and 8.0% of total UK services imports, as shown in Table 4. The top three countries accounted for 33.6% of all UK services imports.

When compared with the same quarter a year ago, the US saw a decrease in service imports to the UK of 7.4% in Quarter 2 2018. This was primarily driven by falls in imports of other business services not included elsewhere of £0.6 billion.

Of the top 10 countries, Ireland and Spain saw the largest value increase compared with the same quarter a year ago; £0.5 billion and £0.4 billion respectively.

Travel was the largest service type import accounting for 35.9% of total imports in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2018. Imports of travel services has seen a 34.6% increase in Quarter 2 2018 compared with Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018.

Users should note that this data shows the seasonal trends throughout the year with the majority of imports of travel seen in Quarter 2 and Quarter 3. Travel covers goods and services provided to UK residents during visits abroad of less than one year, excluding students and medical patients who remain residents of their country of origin, even if the length of stay in another economy is more than a year. Transport to and from the UK is excluded from travel and shown as passenger services under transportation.

In Quarter 2 2018, Spain was the largest import partner for travel services, accounting for 18.5% of total travel services imported. The £2.9 billion imports of travel to Spain was predominantly from £2.5 billion of personal travel.

The US is the second-largest import partner of travel services, followed by France, Italy and Greece. The top five import partners accounted for 47.7% of total imports of travel services.

In 2017 other business services was the largest export service type for both EU and non-EU countries; 29.0% and 28.4% respectively of their total exports, seen in Figure 6. Within other business services, other business services not included elsewhere is the predominant service type for both EU and non-EU countries, followed by legal, accounting, management consulting and public relations.

Financial services were the second-largest export service type for both EU and non-EU countries, making up 22.4% of EU exports and 20.6% of exports to non-EU countries; this was driven by explicitly charged and other financial services.

When comparing 2017 with the previous year, exports of services to Ireland increased by £3.1 billion, driven by other business services not included elsewhere. Exports to the US increased by £2.3 billion, which can be attributed to a few service types, primarily financial services, transportation and travel.

For imports of services, EU and non-EU countries share the same top two service types of travel and other business services but in a different order. Travel was the EU’s largest service type import making up 42.0% of total imports from the EU. For non-EU countries, other business services was the largest service type with 27.6% of total non-EU imports, seen in Figure 7.

Imports of services to the US has also increased by £1.3 billion in 2017 when compared with the previous year. Other business services not included elsewhere accounted for £0.7 billion of this increase.

Service imports from Malaysia saw a 111.4% increase; from £0.7 billion in 2016 to £1.4 billion in 2017. This was primarily driven by an increase in other business services not included elsewhere.

We have produced some interactive tools to help explore the data. At this stage we are unable to include the country by service type element but will look to develop these further for future releases.

Select a country by hovering over it or using the drop-down menu.

What about trade in a particular service type?

Use our interactive tools to understand UK trade of a particular service type.

Click through the levels to explore the data and see the proportion we traded with the EU.

What questions do you have about the new data? Do you find these tools helpful? Please email trade@ons.gov.uk with your comments.

Trade in services covers export and import activity across 12 categories:

• manufacturing

• maintenance and repair services

• transportation

• travel

• construction

• insurance and pension

• financial

• intellectual property

• telecommunications services

• other business services

• personal, cultural and recreational

• government

Trade in services statistics are derived from a variety of sources, though the International Trade in Services (ITIS) Survey and the International Passenger Survey (IPS) form the bulk of these data.

Detailed methodological notes are published in the UK Balance of Payments, The Pink Book 2018.

The UK trade methodology web pages have been developed to provide detailed information about the methods used to produce UK trade statistics.

The UK trade Quality and Methodology Information report contains important information on:

• the strengths and limitations of the data and how it compares with related data

• uses and users of the data

• how the output was created

• the quality of the output including the accuracy of the data

The ONS’s Data Science Campus designed and built a tool that aids the production of more granular output tables for trade in services. These tables are broken down by type of service and country. The tool assesses the most granular level it is possible to publish, given the requirements of quality and disclosure control.