Abstract

The paper aims to examine the effects of service industry's growth on the productive structure of EU countries. The analysis, based on Eurostat data, is carried out to calculate economic indicators useful to compare the growth trend in manufacturing and tertiary sectors. Attention is paid to the sectors as a whole, and to their sub-classification. The results confirm the narrow interdependence between the two sectors especially when looking at disaggregate comparisons. This is a useful starting point for further analysis that intend to work with disaggregated data to better understand changes occurring in EU economies; a more complete picture of the European intersectoral relations might be provided as much as Eurostat will produce more and better detailed information.