Total trade in services

After the pandemic-driven decline of 17.2 per cent in 2020, world services exports value continued its recovery path in 2021 and 2022. In 2022, it increased by 14.8 per cent. An annual growth of 7.0 per cent is nowcast for 2023.

In 2022, global services exports were valued at $7.1 trillion, representing 7.1 per cent of world GDPgross domestic product and 23 per cent of total world trade in both goods and services. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, all main service categories surpassed their value of 2019, except travel and construction.

In 2022, the services exports’ share in GDPgross domestic product exceeded 30 per cent in 21 economies. Those are either small islands where travel exports are important, or other small economies with significant business and financial services exports. Notably, Luxembourg and Sint Maarten (Dutch part) recorded services exports at 162 and 133 per cent of GDPgross domestic product, respectively.

Looking at the trends by development status and region, in 2022, a solid continuation of the recovery of services trade from 2020 was observed in all groups of economies, in developing more than in developed. The highest relative rise was measured in American developing economies, where travel and transport had a prominent role and more ground to recover after the pandemic. Exports increased faster than imports in all groups of developing economies, whereas in developed economies, imports increased faster than exports.

With $929 billion worth of services sold internationally in 2022, the United States of America remained the world’s leading exporter, capturing a 13 per cent share of the global market. It was followed, at some distance, by the United Kingdom ($494 billion). China, the leading exporter among developing economies, ranked third ($424 billion). The top five services exporters from the developing world were Asian. In 2022, they captured 18 per cent of the global market.