Between 2014 and 2024, service exports increased by 10.5% annually, far higher than 2.5% of goods exports in the same period. The proportion of service exports in total exports increased from 27.0% in 2014 to 43.9% in 2024.
The report also pointed out that service exports are not only growing at a fast pace, but their added value contribution to the economy also exceeds that of goods exports.Among service export projects, transportation services contributed the most, accounting for 56 percentage points of the cumulative growth of service exports from 2014 to 2024. The second is other commercial services such as advertising, market research and business management, with contributions of 54.2 percentage points. Financial services ranked third, accounting for 23.1 percentage points.
The United States remains Singapore's largest service trading partner, with bilateral service trade increasing from 58.1 billion yuan in 2014 to 159.1 billion yuan in 2023, an increase of nearly triple. The 27 EU countries ranked second, with the volume of trade in services increased from 32.1 billion yuan to 115.7 billion yuan. At the same time, the service trade volume with mainland China jumped from 21.3 billion yuan to 64.9 billion yuan, making it surpass ASEAN and become Singapore's third largest service trading partner.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry released a special article in the first quarter economic survey report on Thursday (May 22), showing that service trade plays an increasingly important role in Singapore's economy. The United States remains my country's largest service trading partner, while mainland China has grown rapidly and has surpassed ASEAN to become the third largest service trading partner.
The report pointed out that from 2014 to 2024, Singapore's average annual growth rate of service trade was 9.4%, higher than the 6.2% of the domestic economic average growth rate during the same period. The proportion of service trade in Singapore's economy itself has also increased from 101.8% in 2014 to 136.4% in 2024.From the export market, in 2023, the 27 EU countries were Singapore's largest service export market, accounting for 15.3%, a significant increase from 9.7% in 2014. The U.S. share fell slightly from 11.4% to 10.6%, while the mainland Chinese share rose from 5.6% to 6.1%.
The article emphasizes that Singapore's service export market is diversified, and the market concentration index (HHI) has continued to be below 1,000 in the past 20 years, indicating that it effectively diversifies external risks and enhances the resilience of service exports.