International trade

While travel and transport were severely hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, exports of telecommunications and computer services surged everywhere in 2018-2023, recording the highest average annual growth in Asia (14 per cent). Exports of digitally tradable services – such as insurance, financial and other business services, and intellectual property charges – also witnessed a solid five-year increase. Their highest upswing was reported by Asian economies, which also registered the highest average growth in exports of transport services over the period. 

Travel was severely restricted during the pandemic and the regions losing largest relative shares of international tourism revenues were Asia and Oceania. A negative five-year average growth rate in travel exports was also recorded by Northern America. From 2018 to the end of 2023, international travel receipts of Africa, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean maintained an overall rising trend. Despite 2020 and 2021 drops, these three regions saw a faster recovery of international tourism and related travel receipts in 2022 and 2023.

Among the main service categories, travel exports recorded the highest growth in 2023 (34 per cent), surpassing levels recorded in 2019 before the pandemic. 

World transport exports declined by 11 per cent in 2023, reflecting decreasing international merchandise trade. Most other main services exports increased by up to 10 per cent, with 11 per cent growth in telecommunications and computer services. Various business and intellectual property services went up some 8 per cent, as a group. Among those, insurance and pension services surged by 18 per cent in 2023.

Transport and travel remain the most exported services from developing economies of Africa and the Americas at over 62 and 57 per cent of all services sold abroad, respectively. Developing economies in Asia capture increased shares of international services and are diversifying their services trade into knowledge-intensive services, accounting for almost a half of their services exports in 2023. Knowledge-intensive services cover insurance, financial, telecommunication, computer, information, and other business services, as well as intellectual property charges. These products – mostly digitally tradable – represent almost two thirds of services exported from developed economies.

In 2021, amid the COVID-19 lockdown that disrupted many traditional trade flows, world digitally deliverable services exports increased by a remarkable 18 per cent. The expansion continued in 2022 and 2023, with upswings of 5 and 9 per cent, respectively. Three quarters of the exports, worth some $3 372 billion, originated from developed economies, leaving developing world exports at an estimated $1 090 billion for 2023. 

In 2023, exports of digitally deliverable services from developing economies grew by 9 per cent. The growth was prominent across all developing regions: Africa, Americas, Asia and Oceania. Their share in total services exports was 46 per cent, while for the developed world it stood at 61 per cent. It is estimated that about 95 per cent of digitally deliverable services have actually been digitally delivered since 2021. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the share hovered around 87 per cent.