In July 2026, the services account deficit expanded by €1.1 billion on the month to €8.3 billion. Receipts fell compared with the previous month (€-0.6 billion), while expenditure increased (+⁠ 0.5 billion).

On the receipts side, receipts from transport services (+⁠ 0.5 billion), travel (+⁠ 0.5 billion) and charges for the use of intellectual property (+⁠ 0.5 billion), including research and development (+⁠ 0.5 billion), increased. Receipts from telecommunications, computer and information services (€-1.8 billion), including computer services (€-1.3 billion) and professional services and management consultancy services from other business services (€-0.3 billion), fell.

On the expenditure side, expenditure on charges for the use of intellectual property increased (+⁠ 1.8 billion), including expenditure on research and development (+⁠ 0.8 billion). Expenditure on travel (€-0.5 billion) and telecommunications, computer and information services (€-0.4 billion), including computer services (€-0.4 billion), fell.

These data sets for the monthly regional breakdown cover a period of seven years and are customizable for over 70 countries and group of countries.

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Technological services

With technological progress, direct transactions for technological services have also become increasingly important. Technological services are defined as "charges for the use of intellectual property", "telecommunications, computer and information services" and "other business-related services". The first two, in particular, are among the most rapidly growing types of services in the past decade.

Using the example of “charges for the use of intellectual property”, expenditure has grown by 229% since the 2014 reporting year. Over the same period of time, revenue has also experienced growth of 151%.

Geographically, the bulk of this expenditure remains in Europe, while America and Asia are second and third. On the receipts side, there is a more homogeneous distribution, but Europe, followed by America and Asia, are still the most important partner regions for this type of service.

Detailed data on technological services vis-à-vis all countries of the world are published in the accompanying table entitled “Technological services in the balance of payments”.