International trade

World services exports increased by 9.1% year-on-year (YoY) in Q4 2024. Travel exports rose by almost 12%, driven by a continued recovery of international travel in Asia. Transport services exports  - being on an ongoing recovery from the 2023 slowdown - increased by just over 11%. 

Other services exports recorded a strong 8% rise in Q4. Moreover, the latter increase does not reflect a recovery, but follows a trend of strong growth over recent years. Many of other services can be digitally delivered and the sustained expansion of their exports confirms the rising importance of digital trade. 

The quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted growth rate of services exports was estimated at 2% in Q4 2024. In Q3, it stood at 2.9%. 

Services other than transport and travel - most of which can be digitally traded - continued their strong year-on-year rise in Q4 2024. In Asia, Europe, and Northern America, other services represent over 60% of total services exports. In Latin America and the Caribbean, other services cover some 40% of exports. It was in this region that the highest relative growth of other services was observed (+11.3% year-on-year).

Increasing by 7.8% year-on-year, other services exports grew faster than transport and travel exports also in Northern America in Q4 2024. In Europe, services exports growth was led by travel (+8.4%), followed by other services (+7.0%).

In Q4 2024, transport services continued recuperating from the 2023 downturn and travel was still partly recovering from the 2020-2023 pandemic closedowns. This was particularly observed in Asia, where transport and travel were the main drivers behind services exports growth, witnessing 19.9% and 21.6% year-on-year increase, respectively.