Services Exports Reached 9.6 Trillion Dollars and a Record Share of Almost 28 Percent of Trade
Global services exports totalled 9.6 trillion dollars in 2025 and made up almost 28 percent of world trade on a balance of payments basis, a record share, WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on 17 September at the launch of a report on services export promotion written with the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Egypt is 1 of 9 economies studied.
Digital delivery is pulling away
Digitally delivered services have grown 8.5 percent a year on average since 2005, against 4.7 percent for goods and 5 percent for other services. On our calculation, compounded over 20 years that turns 1 dollar of digitally delivered exports into 5.11 dollars and 1 dollar of goods exports into 2.51, so 20 years of compounding leaves the digital multiple 2.0 times the goods multiple.
Okonjo-Iweala said export promotion for services cannot mimic the goods model. She said training, reputation, trust, expertise and credibility matter greatly in the services context, and that suppliers need to find clients, demonstrate their capabilities and build professional networks.
| Category | Average annual growth since 2005 |
|---|---|
| Digitally delivered services | 8.5% |
| Other services | 5.0% |
| Goods | 4.7% |
Growth rates as given at the launch. The cumulative comparison in the text is our calculation.
9 countries, no single model
The report draws on Chile, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mauritius, the Philippines and Uruguay. Nanno Mulder, who heads UNECLAC’s international trade unit, said the strongest results came from policies outside the usual export promotion mandate: skills development, investment attraction, aftercare, regulatory reform, certification, digital trust and coordination between the public and private sectors.
Deputy Director General Johanna Hill drew 3 conclusions: promotion has to be designed around what services are, it cannot operate in isolation, and there is no single blueprint to copy. Anabel Gonzalez, vice president at the Inter American Development Bank, said market access alone is not enough without the institutions and firm level capabilities to use it. The African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the IDB and the World Bank Group supported the publication.
Why it matters: For Egypt, and for the region’s other services exporters, the finding that matters is where the results came from. The policies credited with the strongest results, among them skills development, investment attraction, regulatory reform and certification, sit beyond the traditional promotion agency mandate, so on our reading the policy lever is spread across several ministries rather than 1 agency. With services at almost 28 percent of world trade, which implies world trade of about 34 trillion dollars on our calculation, the category is large enough to be a diversification route in its own right.
Outlook: The 9 case studies, Egypt among them, set out what worked in each economy rather than new trade data, so the test is whether promotion agencies in the region take up the skills, regulation and investment measures the report credits.
Sources: WTO, UNECLAC.
