Balance of Trade
In 2018, exports of services was 710,400 million ISK and the imports of services 463,500 million ISK. Therefore, the services trade surplus for the year was 246,900 million ISK compared with 273,000 million ISK in 2017.
Service Exports
Travel was the largest category of exports in 2018, accounting for 47.5% of total exports of services, showing a 4.8% increase from the year before at the current exchange rates. Transportation was the second largest category of exports accounting for 33.6% of total exports of services and increased by 4.4% from 2017 at current exchange rates. Together, travel and transportation was 81% of total exports of services.
EU was the largest trading partner with 43.9% of total exports of services decreasing by 0.8% between years at current exchange rates. United Kingdom was the largest trading country within the EU with 11.8% of total exports of services. However the exports of services to the United States was 32% of the total exports of services. The export increased by 17% to both the United States and to the United Kingdom and 6.2% respectively at current exchange rates.
Service Imports
Travel was also the largest category of service imports in 2018 or 42.8% of total imports of services with an increase of 11.9% from 2017 at current exchange rates. The second largest category was other business services, accounting for 19.3% of total imports of service and increased by 14.6% from the previous year at current exchange rates. Thereof, operating leasing services was the largest subcategory of other business services or 6.8% of total service imports. Transportation was the third largest or 17.2% of total imports of services and increased by 21.3% between years at current exchange rates.
The largest trading partners with regard to imports of services were the United Kingdom (16.4% of total) and the United States (15.9% of total). Imports of services increased from both countries, by 18.5% from the United Kingdom and by 8.1% from the United States at current exchange rates.
More detailed categorization of trade in services by EBOPS classification and by countries is available on the Statistics Iceland website.
| Trade in services 2017-2018 by EBOPS classification | ||||||
| 2017 | 2018 | Change between years % | ||||
| Export | Import | Export | Import | Export | Import | |
| Value in million ISK | ||||||
| Total | 675,782.6 | 402,778.5 | 710,355.7 | 463,494.9 | 5.1 | 15.1 |
| 1. Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned b | 0.0 | 0.0 | 173.0 | 266.2 | ||
| 2. Maintenance and repair services n.i.e. | 6,475.5 | 17,902.0 | 6,861.5 | 21,196.8 | 6.0 | 18.4 |
| 3. Transport | 228,366.3 | 65,780.6 | 238,343.2 | 79,777.7 | 4.4 | 21.3 |
| 4. Travel | 321,726.2 | 177,046.3 | 337,266.8 | 198,183.2 | 4.8 | 11.9 |
| 5. Construction | 2,763.0 | 3,515.9 | 2,265.9 | 4,122.3 | -18.0 | 17.2 |
| 6. Insurance and pension services | 1,722.1 | 4,320.7 | 1,395.6 | 3,020.2 | -19.0 | -30.1 |
| 7. Financial services | 17,526.4 | 7,403.6 | 17,844.0 | 6,898.8 | 1.8 | -6.8 |
| 8. Charges for the use of intellectual property n.i.e. | 26,995.1 | 12,369.7 | 27,062.1 | 15,361.6 | 0.2 | 24.2 |
| 9. Telecommunications, computer and information ser | 32,391.7 | 27,974.2 | 37,455.5 | 33,002.2 | 15.6 | 18.0 |
| 10. Other business services | 31,138.7 | 77,992.1 | 36,849.1 | 89,379.7 | 18.3 | 14.6 |
| 11. Personal, cultural and recreational services | 4,303.5 | 6,487.6 | 2,401.0 | 10,116.9 | -44.2 | 55.9 |
| 12. Government goods and services n.i.e. | 2,374.2 | 1,985.7 | 2,437.8 | 2,169.6 | 2.7 | 9.3 |
| Trade in services 2017-2018 by market areas | ||||||
| 2017 | 2018 | Change between years % | ||||
| Export | Import | Export | Import | Export | Import | |
| Value in million ISK | ||||||
| Total | 675,782.6 | 402,778.5 | 710,355.7 | 463,494.9 | 5.1 | 15.1 |
| EU | 314,366.2 | 277,580.5 | 311,980.6 | 317,377.9 | -0.8 | 14.3 |
| United Kingdom | 78,683.8 | 64,309.4 | 83,547.5 | 76,216.4 | 6.2 | 18.5 |
| Germany | 45,757.9 | 18,030.3 | 43,036.1 | 20,261.1 | -5.9 | 12.4 |
| Denmark | 33,812.1 | 35,538.5 | 28,810.9 | 34,771.5 | -14.8 | -2.2 |
| Other EU Countries | 156,112.4 | 159,702.3 | 156,586.1 | 186,128.9 | 0.3 | 16.5 |
| EFTA | 34,509.2 | 19,830.5 | 31,326.2 | 23,407.9 | -9.2 | 18.0 |
| Other European Countries | 9,255.0 | 8,335.4 | 9,366.7 | 13,806.0 | 1.2 | 65.6 |
| United States | 194,192.6 | 68,170.5 | 227,157.6 | 73,659.6 | 17.0 | 8.1 |
| Asia | 57,583.0 | 13,614.4 | 59,879.1 | 17,716.4 | 4.0 | 30.1 |
| Other Countries | 65,876.6 | 15,247.3 | 70,645.5 | 17,527.1 | 7.2 | 15.0 |