Services are taking a larger share of world trade, yet the poorest countries are falling further behind in digital exports, according to UN Trade and Development’s Global Trade Update for September 2026.
The agency said services accounted for 71 percent of global intermediate inputs in 2022, including 78 percent in developed economies and 61 percent in developing economies. Their share of global exports rose from 23 percent in 2015 to 27 percent in 2025.
World services exports grew about 6.7 percent a year over the past decade and 8.3 percent in 2025. Digitally deliverable services grew faster still, at 7.1 percent a year on average, and now represent 56 percent of global services exports.
Least developed countries have not kept pace. Their services exports grew only 3 percent a year, and their share of world services exports fell to 0.6 percent in 2025. Digitally deliverable services make up just 16 percent of LDC services exports, compared with 61 percent in developed economies. UNCTAD said those countries still lean heavily on transport and travel.
The report describes two linked trends. One is servicification: logistics, finance, design and data management are built into farms and factories even when the final export is a physical good. The other is digital delivery, which has made many services tradable at scale. Services already account for about 33 percent of intermediate inputs in industrial goods exports from developed economies, 27 percent from developing economies and 13 percent from LDCs.
UNCTAD listed three priorities: better data on how services feed into exports, affordable connectivity and digital payment systems, and international support where financing and institutions are thin. It also noted that digital services trade restrictiveness has risen over the past decade.
