The corona crisis has also affected international trade in services. In the second quarter, Dutch entrepreneurs exported 7.4 billion euros less in services abroad, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Thursday.
Services exports fell by 12 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Imports of services were 17 percent lower.
Especially in the travel sector, international trade declined. Spending by foreign travelers in the Netherlands in the second quarter was more than 75 percent lower than twelve months previously; Dutch travelers abroad even spent about 90 percent less.
There were also sectors that actually traded more services in the second quarter. Payment services, for example, benefited from the increase in online commerce.
More trade in intellectual property
In addition, Dutch companies received about 13 percent more for the use of intellectual property. That equates to almost 2 billion euros extra. This mainly concerns streaming of films. Exports of user licenses for software and games were also 20 percent higher.
Incidentally, a turnaround in the volume of international services trade in the Netherlands already took place in the first quarter. After three consecutive years of double-digit growth, exports increased by a modest 3 percent and imports by 5 percent.
Important for the economy
In an explanation, Statistics Netherlands says that international trade often refers to the trade in goods, but that the import and export of services is also important for the economy. In 2018, the Netherlands earned nearly 105 billion euros from the export of services, approximately 14 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
In numbers, the vast majority of service providers (93 percent) are small or medium-sized businesses. But multinationals bring in by far the most money: they represent about 90 percent of the total trade value.
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