Total trade in services
Global services trade up 15 per cent in 2022
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.
Source: The dotted line indicates UNCTAD nowcasts (as of November 2023). For the weekly update of the nowcast and its methodology, see -—
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All regions recovered in 2022
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.
Leading services exporters
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.
Concepts and definitions
In this chapter, in accordance with the concepts of the balance of payments -—
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—-, services are understood as the result of a production activity that changes the conditions of the consuming units, or facilitates the exchange of products or financial assets.
International trade in services takes place when a service is supplied in any of the following modes: from one economy to another (services cross the border); within an economy to service a consumer of another economy (consumer crosses the border); or through the presence of natural persons of one economy in another economy (supplier crosses the border) -—
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Trade-in-services figures are jointly compiled by UNCTAD and WTOWorld Trade Organization.
Summary tables
References
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