New set of indicators sheds light on the EU’s participation and exposure in global value chains

Eurostat and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) have published a new set of 12 macroeconomic globalisation indicators that measure the participation of the EU and individual EU countries in global value chains. 

This official set of data will provide evidence to policymakers, businesses, and researchers, and help them evaluate the participation level of each Member State in the global value chains of industries, the value added generated in the European single market as a whole due to exports of a given country or EU’s key trading partners for specific sectors. The new indicators provide information on 64 industrial sectors.

Developed based on the use of global value chains indicators in the EU and in international policy documents, the new JRC-Eurostat set of globalisation indicators measures exports and imports, value added in trade, value added in final use, global value chain participation, exposure and employment associated to exports from 2010 up until 2022. 

In 2022, 37.9% of EU exports were participating in the global value chains, either as input to third countries’ exports or as generating value added elsewhere through the imports used for exports. This share stood up from 36.1% in 2010, significantly above the US (33.8% in 2022, up from 32.6% in 2010) and China (32.8% in 2022 down from 35.6% in 2010). 

There are already similar initiatives launched by other international organisations, however, this is the only one that, for the first time, considers the intra-EU trade as part of the global value chain participation of the EU as a single entity. So far, this was considered only at the aggregated level but not for each Member State. 

Therefore, this novel set of indicators provides new insights in the evaluation of vulnerabilities and opportunities of each Member State with respect to non-EU trading partners.

These indicators can become a fundamental tool to evaluate potential risks and opportunities, understand how trade and industrial shifts can impact the EU, and to reduce dependencies with other territories. They enable a better understanding of the EU’s role in the global economy, by measuring the participation of the EU countries in the global value chains as well as indirect dependencies to main trading partners (EU vs. China, the US, etc.) via third countries. 

The current data reveal, for example, that despite a slowdown in global trade over the past decade and the double shocks of the pandemic and the energy crisis, global value chains, though modestly, have continued expanding in recent years. 

Official statistics 

These macroeconomic indicators are developed based on the Eurostat-JRC methodology to compile official statistics in the field of multi-country input-output tables (FIGARO) available for public consultation. 

FIGARO stands for ‘Full International and Global Accounts for Research in input-Output analysis’ and is the result of a co-operation project between Eurostat and the JRC. This unique tool allows economic modellers, policymakers, and other interested stakeholders across the EU to analyse the socio-economic and environmental effects of globalisation.

Annual time series are available from 2010 to 2022 for the EU27, the UK, the US, other 16 main EU partners and the rest of the world as a single region. 

Related links

Macroeconomic globalisation indicators

Presentation of the Macroeconomic Globalisation Indicators

Economic globalisation indicators based on FIGARO (2024 edition)