Statistical portrait of Luxembourg's businesses

FOREWORD

This publication provides a statistical overview of businesses in Luxembourg and offers readers a range of analyses based on official statistics produced by STATEC. Its aim is to shed light, through a structured and well-documented analysis, on the main trends shaping the national economy.

To begin with, the document presents a concise update on a selection of key indicators tracked in previous editions. This introduction offers an initial overview of recent developments in the Luxembourg economy and invites readers to explore the more in-depth analysis set out in the following chapters.

As an introduction, the publication presents several key benchmarks relating to businesses in Luxembourg: the main sectors of economic activity, the employment associated with them, and trends in the five-year survival rate of businesses between those established in 2008 and those established in 2018. These initial findings provide a general overview of the structure of Luxembourg’s productive sector and some of the trends shaping it.

Two thematic focus sections enrich this edition, one devoted to construction and the other to inland waterway transport. With regard to construction, the analysis examines trends in insolvencies over the last fifteen years, the ten-year trend in the production index, and how these trends can be illuminated by certain ratios derived from experimental statistics compiled as part of the BACH project – a European initiative aimed at harmonising and consolidating companies’ accounting data to enable financial comparisons between participating countries. The document also examines trends in the activity of property managers and estate agents, with a view to highlighting the transformations in this service sector over time.

With regard to inland waterway transport, the publication examines its relative position amongst the various modes of transport, the respective importance of transit and international flows, and the nature of the main goods unloaded in Luxembourg.

Drawing on the most recent data, the publication also offers several insights into current economic issues, in particular foreign trade and artificial intelligence. It thus addresses the effects of new US tariffs on Luxembourg’s exports, the state of trade with Mercosur, and trends in imports from the three major economic blocs: the European Union, the United States and China. The publication also examines the growth in the adoption of artificial intelligence technologies over the last three years and positions Luxembourg within the European landscape, both in terms of actual usage and intentions to use these technologies.

The study further analyses the impact of the high proportion of higher education graduates on the innovative nature of businesses, as well as the contribution of different sectors of activity to research and development (R&D) efforts.

Finally, a separate article is devoted to foreign direct investment (FDI), its main forms of presentation and the methods used to calculate it, in order to facilitate its reading and interpretation.

Each topic covered is summarised in a clear and accessible manner, presented either graphically or in text form, followed by a more in-depth analysis in the main body of the text. References to further sources are also provided for readers wishing to explore the subject in greater depth, in particular to the statistical tables published on the Luxembourg statistics portal and to several key European resources.

Enjoy reading!