The world’s 10 leading commercial services exporters

The United States is ranked first among the world’s largest commercial services exporters, according to UNCTAD data.

In descending order, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Netherlands follow, among the developed economies of the planet.

After a modest 1.9 percent increase in 2019, global services exports fell dramatically in the first two quarters of 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic struck. They showed signs of recovery in the third quarter.

However, a 19.9 percent year-on-year decline is still forecast for the third quarter of 2020.

For developing countries, China led the ranking of the main exporting countries of commercial services, followed by India, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong.

In 2019, world services exports were valued at $ 6.1 trillion, representing a quarter of the value of total exports, including goods, and 7% of world GDP.

In more than half of the world’s economies, their share of GDP was greater than 10 percent.

In many economies in Europe, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, services exports played a particularly prominent role.

Some smaller European economies, such as Luxembourg, Malta and Ireland, as well as several island economies, reported service exports in excess of 70% of their GDP.

Service exporters

Examining trends by state of development and region, a modest increase in services exports was observed in all groups of economies; the highest in Asia and Oceania and in Africa.

In contrast, imports showed divergent trends. In Africa they increased moderately, by 2.7%, while the developed and transition economies registered considerable growth, of 4.4 and 5.3%, respectively.

Imports of services decreased in the developing countries of the Americas (-4%) and in the developing countries of Asia and Oceania (-2%).

Top 5 services exporters, 2019 (Billions of United States dollars)

Leaders

With services sold internationally worth $ 876 billion, the United States remained the world’s leading exporter, accounting for 14% of global services exports.

It was followed, at some distance, by three European exporters which together captured 17% of the world market.

China, the top exporter among developing economies, ranked fifth overall, with $ 283 billion in services sold.

The top five exporters of services in the developing world were Asian. In 2019, they had a world market share of nearly 15%, just like all other developing economies combined.

International trade in services takes place when a service is supplied in any of the following ways: from one economy to another (services cross the border); within one economy to serve a consumer in another economy (consumer crosses the border); or through the presence of natural persons from one economy in another economy (the supplier crosses the border).