Insee Première · July 2022 · n° 1912

In 2021, the production of market services was close to its pre-crisis level

Market services increased again in 2021. Their value added rose by 5.5 percent in volume, after a 6.5 percent decline in 2020, and thus approached its pre-crisis level. Business services activities increased strongly and returned to their 2019 level of production. Services mainly dedicated to households rebounded, all the more that they had dropped sharply with the health restrictions (catering, personal services, market cultural and recreational activities) or travel restrictions (accommodation), without however returning to their 2019 level. IT activities, engineering, information services and telecommunications increased strongly. Real estate activities were clearly on the rise again, driven by property dealers and real estate agencies sales. Investment in market services growth was significantly higher than in previous years (+9.2%). Household consumption of services also rebounded (+5.1%), but without returning to its 2019 level. The foreign trade surplus in services recovered to over 5 billion euros, as it was before the crisis.