In 2021, the value of Services Provided to Enterprises (SPE) grew by 16.4% (+0.3 p.p. above the total for non-financial companies), reaching EUR 21.2 billion, after a reduction of 1.6% in 2020. Compared to 2019, there was a growth of 14.6%.

Gross Value Added (GVA) increased by 15.0% (+3.8% in 2020; +19.3% compared to 2019), reaching EUR 13.0 billion and Gross Operating Surplus (GOS) grew by 11.7% (+10.1% in 2020; +22.9% compared to 2019), amounting to EUR 3.6 billion, lower variations than those recorded in total non-financial companies (+15.2% and +27,3%, respectively).

These results correspond to 134 134 enterprises (+6.1% than in 2020; +7.6% vis-à-vis 2019), employing 465 483 persons (+7.4% over the previous year; +4.2% compared to 2019). With the exception of Legal activities, which recorded a decrease in the number of persons employed (-1.7%), all other Business Services showed growth in this variable in 2021, with emphasis on the Computing sector with the highest increase (+14.8%).

Computing services continued to be the most representative activity (35.4% of total services rendered; +1.2 p.p. than in 2020) and the one that grew the most in 2021 (+20.6%; +10.6% in 2020). Comparing with 2019, the sector grew by 33.4%. In this activity, the GVA and the GOS increased by 17.7% and 9.3%, respectively.

Accounting, auditing and consulting activities remained as the second most representative activity (26.2% of total services rendered), having grown by 14.9% (-3.9% in 2020), thus surpassing by 10.5% the value recorded in 2019. 

In the total of Business Services sector, the five largest companies accounted for 25.4% of the total services rendered in 2021 (26.0% in 2020). By activity, this concentration indicator ranged from a maximum of 85.1% in Computer games publishing to a minimum of 7.8% in Architectural activities.