International trade

World services exports increased by 4.8% year-on-year in Q1 2025, at a slower pace than in the quarters before. This slowdown affected all main service categories. In Q1 2025, travel exports increased by 5.3% and transport services by 3.3%, and other services exports recorded a 5% rise. The relatively high growth rates witnessed during 2023 and 2024 had partly been a reflection of the recovery from the decline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As UNCTADstat data show, the quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted growth rate of services exports was estimated at -1.6% in Q1 2025, indicating a decrease in comparison to Q4 2024.

Asia recorded the highest relative growth of services exports in Q1 2025, year-on-year. The 12.8% increase in travel exports may still reflect some recovery from the decline of international tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic, from 2021 to 2023. The rise in transport exports (+7.6%) was the highest among all continents. Other services - most of which can be digitally traded - also recorded a strong increase, of 8.4%.

Exports of those other services grew relatively strongly in Q1 also in Latin America and the Caribbean (+8.0%). Both transport and travel exports showed a dynamic development in the region, marking a 4.8% and 6.2% increase, respectively.

Europe, accounting for almost half (49%) of global services exports, witnessed a relatively slow year-on-year growth in Q1 2025. Its exports of 'other' services were up 3.2%, of travel up 2.7%, while transport exports recorded a modest 0.2% rise.

In Northern America, services other than transport and travel led the growth, rising by 4.7%. Transport exports increased by 1.8%. International travel receipts, by contrast, recorded a 2.3% drop in Q1 2025.