Exports of non-tourism services grow after Covid, but their weight in GDP does not reach EU levels

The Bank of Spain asks to take advantage of European funds and promote policies that increase competition in the service sector

MADRID, 21 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Bank of Spain indicates that the relative weight of Spanish exports of non-tourism services over GDP remains below that observed in the euro area and its main economies, with the exception of Italy, and considers that there is "a significant margin of upward travel".

All this taking into account that the accumulated growth of real exports of non-tourism services between 2020 and 2022 amounted to practically 50%, so that, in 2022, these were close to 20% above the 2019 level.

According to the Bank of Spain, the path of expansion of exports of non-tourism services over the last decades has continued after the setback registered during the health crisis, resulting in a greater weight in GDP, which has gone from 2.4% in 1995 to 6.8% in 2022.

"However, this contribution still remains below the percentages it reaches in countries such as Germany and France," warns in a report published this Friday.

Looking to the future, the Banco de España considers that various structural factors of a global nature could support a continuation of the high dynamism of exports of non-tourism services, such as the growing digitization of the productive fabric, technological innovations and the expansion of professional services.

In addition, in the case of Spanish exports, an additional growth margin can be expected, as shown by the comparison with the main euro area core economies, in which the share of non-tourism services exports in GDP and in global trade is significantly higher than in the country.

The Bank of Spain has ensured that the high dynamism of exports of non-tourism services after the pandemic has contributed significantly to the recovery of the Spanish economy.

This reactivation has been mainly supported by sales -particularly to the EMU and North America- of business, transport and technological services (intellectual property rights and telecommunications, computing and information). This dynamism has been favored, in a context of wage moderation, by the competitive capacity of a core of large exporting companies that usually belong to multinational, Spanish or foreign groups.

According to the organization headed by Pablo Hernández de Cos, the competitive capacity of large exporting companies in Spain, which usually belong to business groups, could explain, at least in part, the high dynamism of exports of non-tourism services after the pandemic.

In this sense, the Bank of Spain has insisted that the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), linked to the European Next Generation EU (NGEU) programme, represents an opportunity to promote high value-added services associated with research and new technologies, due to its emphasis on the challenge of digitalisation, as long as its design and application are appropriate.

In addition, experts point out that the benefits associated with these investments would be enhanced if they are accompanied by the adoption of policies that increase competition in the services sector, which, in turn, would stimulate improvements in their quality, with the consequent increase in competitive capacity abroad.

On the other hand, the Bank of Spain has warned that the international context raises uncertainties about the evolution of international transactions of non-tourism services.

These risks are associated with growing geopolitical tensions and the possible regionalization of global value chains, the net impact of which is uncertain, since, on the one hand, they may limit the expansion of non-tourism service transactions outside the EU (which currently account for around half of Spanish exports), particularly in some Asian countries, while, on the other, they may strengthen ties within the EU.