International trade

With almost $1.2 trillion worth of services exports in 2025, the United States of America remained the world’s leading exporter by a large margin, capturing some 13% of the global market. It was followed, at some distance, by the United Kingdom ($718 billion). Ireland ($565 billion) ranked third.

China, the leading exporter among developing economies, ranked fifth globally ($508 billion). All top five services exporters from the developing world were Asian. Together, they captured 17% of the global market in 2025 and accounted for 57% of developing economies' total services exports.

The world leading importers remained the United States of America ($910 billion) and China ($624 billion).

Developing economies, as a group, are making progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal of increasing their  share of world services exports. However, this progress is highly concentrated among a small number of economies. Excluding the five largest developing-economy exporters reveals a less favorable picture, with  many developing economies loosing market share over the past decade.

Digitally deliverable and knowledge-intensive services, such as financial, telecommunications, computer, professional, technical, audio-visual, or intellectual property related services, experienced a strong boost during the COVID-19 pandemic, likely driven by the rapid advancement of information technology and use of artificial intelligence. In recent years, these services have grown faster than transport and travel, on which many developing economies have traditionally relied. 

In 2025, Northern Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa recorded the fastest growth in services exports, among all world regions, at 15.5% and 10.4%, respectively.  Northern Africa witnessed another year of tourism recovery, with international travel receipts rising by 22.6%.