Services are increasingly embedded in production across sectors. Logistics, finance, design and data management are built into what farms and factories produce and export, even when the final product is a physical good.
Key points
- Services account for 71% of global intermediate inputs, and their share of global exports rose to 27% in 2025.
- Digitally deliverable services grew 7.1% a year on average over the past decade and now account for 56% of global services exports.
- Least developed countries’ share of global services exports fell to 0.6%, while digitally deliverable services account for just 16% of their services exports.
- Connectivity, payments and skills gaps continue to hold back participation in digital trade.
- Artificial intelligence and fragmented digital trade rules could deepen existing divides without targeted policy action.
Services have become a driving force in global production and trade, underpinning manufacturing, agriculture and participation in global value chains.
But the benefits aren’t being shared evenly. Many developing countries, especially least developed countries (LDCs), face structural barriers that limit their participation in the fast-growing trade in digitally deliverable services – those that can be delivered remotely over computer networks.
Services increasingly underpin global production
Services are increasingly embedded in goods production and firms’ business models. In 2022, they accounted for 71% of global intermediate inputs – 78% in developed economies and 61% in developing economies.
Services also make up 33% of intermediate inputs in industrial goods exports in developed economies, compared with 27% in developing economies and 13% in LDCs.
Better measurement of services trade, including services embedded in goods exports, is essential to understand their contribution to competitiveness, diversification and development.
World services exports grew by around 6.7% a year over the past decade and by 8.3% in 2025. Digitally deliverable services grew even faster, at an average of 7.1% a year, and now make up 56% of global services exports.
LDCs haven’t kept pace. Their services exports grew by only 3% a year, while their share of global services exports fell to 0.6% in 2025. Digitally deliverable services represent just 16% of LDC services exports, compared with 61% in developed economies.
Digital divides persist, and AI may widen them
Inadequate connectivity, costly international payments and skills shortages constrain participation in digital services trade. Affordability and connectivity gaps remain significant between developed and developing economies.
Half of the countries with the highest remittance costs are LDCs. Artificial intelligence (AI) could also intensify existing inequalities because computing capacity, data, finance and expertise remain concentrated in a small number of economies and firms. Less than one third of developing countries have adopted national AI strategies.
Countries need stronger digital infrastructure and skills, better payment systems and greater AI readiness, backed by international cooperation.
Multilateral services trade rules were largely designed before the digital era. Digital trade provisions have expanded rapidly through regional and bilateral agreements, creating a more fragmented regulatory landscape with uneven participation.
Of the preferential trade agreements signed between 2000 and 2025, 55% include e-commerce or digital trade provisions. Since 2020, 90% of developed countries, 62% of developing countries and 66% of LDCs have participated in agreements containing such provisions.
Greater transparency, regulatory cooperation and negotiating capacity can help developing countries participate meaningfully in emerging rule-making, so new rules reflect different levels of development and national priorities.
Many developing countries, particularly LDCs, remain only marginally integrated into rapidly growing services trade, especially in digitally deliverable services.
The report identifies three priorities: improving services trade data, strengthening digital infrastructure and skills, and ensuring more meaningful participation by developing countries in international rule-making. Together, these measures can help countries translate services growth into higher productivity, competitiveness and economic diversification.
