OECD published The Future of Productivity book. "Productivity diffusion is especially challenging in the services sector, partly due to low competitive pressures which blunt the incentives to adopt best practices. This partly reflects policy weaknesses and productivity problems in the services sector will become increasingly costly for two reasons. First, the weight of services in our economies will continue to rise. Second, it may hinder the effective functioning of global value chains since logistics, finance and communication are the oil that greases the wheels of globalisation." Also, the report states that "even though the most advanced firms can have productivity levels close to the global frontier, their aggregate impact is muted to the extent that they are under-sized."

According to recently published Eurostat data on remittances, Slovakia (95%), Luxembourg (91%), Ireland (80%) and the Czech Republic (78%) were the Member States that recorded the highest proportion of intra-EU outflows of personal transfers in total outflows of personal transfers.