Trade in services by category

* Least squares growth rate (see Calculation methods page).
Regional trends over the last five years
International trade in services was more severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic than merchandise trade. Among services, travel and transport were most affected. Owing to a renewed demand for goods, transport recovered rapidly and strongly in 2021, especially in Asia and Europe. By contrast, travel, particularly long-distance travel, continued to suffer, pinning the five-year average growth rate of global international travel receipts to -16 per cent.
From 2016 to 2019, services trade enjoyed growth across main services categories on all continents. Africa’s travel exports rose substantially, while other regions registered solid gains in telecommunications and computer services. Financial, insurance, business, and intellectual property services rose globally before and then remained afloat during the pandemic. Expectedly, telecommunications and computer services’ exports grew during the pandemic, especially in Europe and Asia.
Global trends by service category in 2021
Telecommunications, computer, and information services
In 2021, 73 per cent of global services were supplied from developed economies, whose exports were dominated by insurance, financial, intellectual property, telecommunications, computer, and other business services. Telecommunications, computer, and information services continued to build on the strong demand during the pandemic. Globally, they expanded by 19 per cent in 2021, more than double their growth from the year before. African exports of those services were 14 per cent higher in 2021 than in 2020. With 20 per cent growth, American developing economies caught up with the increasing trend in other regions for this service category. These services often underpin intra-firm collaboration, business-to-business and business-to-clients connectivity, and digital trade.
Concepts and definitions
The breakdown by service category in this section has been built from the division of services in the balance of payments statistics, known as the 2010 Extended Balance of Payments Services Classification (EBOPS 20102010 Extended Balance of Payments Services Classification) -—
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—-. For the correspondence to the EBOPS 2010 categories and to the main groups presented in UNCTADstat, see Classifications page.
The presented trade-in-services figures are jointly compiled by UNCTAD and WTOWorld Trade Organization.
Summary tables
References
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