International enterprises

Official statistics have traditionally focused on measuring domestic activities, external trade and balance of payments statistics being the classic exceptions to this. Statistics Denmark is committed to shedding light on the central characteristics of society, and the development of globalisation statistics has therefore been a high priority of Statistics Denmark.

In recent years, new annual statistics on foreign controlled enterprises in Denmark as well as Danish controlled enterprises abroad have been established. Moreover, in 2012 Statistics Denmark carried out a large survey on the international organisation and sourcing by Danish enterprises.

Statistics Denmark has, in the past years, been actively involved in the work at European level under Eurostat, on developing the statistical coverage of the globalisation of business. As part of this, Statistics Denmark is actively engaged in micro data linking as an approach to further exploit existing data to shed light on globalisation. An example of this work is the analysis of exporting enterprises in the Nordic countries, which was published in March of 2014.

Nordic countries in Global Value Chains 2016

The report analyses the participation of Nordic enterprises in global value chains. A new, innovative dataset enables analyses of, for example, the different patterns of large, small and multinational enterprises’ participation in international trade as well as their impact on value added.

Services and Goods Exports from the Nordics

Strongholds and profiles of exporting enterprises

• Exports of goods and services grew 10 per cent from 130 billion EUR in 2008 to 142 billion EUR in 2015. Despite this increase, exports as a share of GDP dropped 1 percentage point to 53 per cent in the same period. Goods made-up 60 per cent of all exports and services 40 per cent in 2015, almost exactly the same as in 2008.
• Exports of services increased by 18 per cent from 2010 to 2014. Yet the share of 3.3 per cent of EU28 exports in 2014 was lower than the 2010 share of 3.6 per cent. And while Denmark was the number one Nordic exporter of services in 2010, Sweden was the largest Nordic service exporter in 2014.
• Still trade in services plays an important part in Danish international trade. With 54.9 EUR billion in exports of services, Danish exports of services accounted for 21 per  cent of GDP in 2014. The Nordic countries account for 22 per cent of Danish service exports, while the United States was the largest single-country market for Danish exports in 2014, accounting for 12 per cent of exports in services.
• Compared to the other Nordic countries, Danish exports in services are the least diversified. The largest service (as well as overall) export category, transport services, account for more than 60 per cent of total service exports. But while Danish exports of transport services alone accounted for more than half of all the Nordic countries’ transport services exports, Denmark have low exports of knowledge-based services compared to the other Nordic countries.

Read Services and Goods Exports from the Nordics

Nordic Exports of Goods and Exporting Enterprises

Main findings for Denmark:

• The export of goods increased 3 per cent from 79 to 82 billion euros from 2008 to 2012, the Danish share of EU-27 exports dropping from 2,0 to 1,8 per cent.
• Increasing exports to BRIC countries (49 per cent), Next-11 (21 per cent), and the US (31 per cent). Increased share of EU-27 exports to BRIC and the US markets, but decline in share of exports to Next-11 (new growth markets, including countries such as Turkey, Mexico and Indonesia).
• High growth in three export product strongholds: medicinal and pharmaceutical products, raw furskins and other skins as well as live animals. Medicinal and pharmaceutical products are a key stronghold on three markets: the US, BRIC countries and Next-11.
• Small and medium-sized enterprises contribute significantly to exports, also on emerging markets. Overall, SMEs have recovered to pre-crisis export levels, as is the case for large enterprises.
• In manufacturing, employment and value-added have developed better in exporting than in non-exporting enterprises, irrespective of enterprise size.

The analysis was funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and carried out by the national statistical institutes in the Nordic countries.

For further information please contact Peter Bøegh Nielsen, (+45) 39 17 31 11 

Read Nordic Exports of Goods and Exporting Enterprises

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