Similarly, almost 65% of foreign direct investment in Germany now comes from the euro area, and half of German foreign direct investment goes to other euro area countries. Over this period, value chains have also extended across Europe. On average, around 40% of foreign value added in euro area exports comes from other euro area countries.
This is expected to help financial institutions to save costs and to encourage cross-border activities. In turn, this should result in a more efficient financial sector and also bring benefits to non-financial corporations and households through higher competition and increasing availability of financial services.