St. Lucia - Commercial service exports (current US$)

The value for Commercial service exports (current US$) in St. Lucia was 382,756,300 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 44 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 1,111,748,000 in 2019 and a minimum value of 12,498,710 in 1976.

Definition: Commercial service exports are total service exports minus exports of government services not included elsewhere. International transactions in services are defined by the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual (1993) as the economic output of intangible commodities that may be produced, transferred, and consumed at the same time. Definitions may vary among reporting economies.

Source: International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files.

See also:

Year Value
1976 12,498,710
1977 17,800,000
1978 27,700,000
1979 33,800,000
1980 40,500,000
1981 38,500,000
1982 44,700,000
1983 54,200,000
1984 64,000,000
1985 69,500,000
1986 81,740,740
1987 97,074,070
1988 115,555,600
1989 134,322,200
1990 149,333,300
1991 170,870,400
1992 191,270,400
1993 203,051,900
1994 236,655,600
1995 264,077,800
1996 265,733,300
1997 287,244,400
1998 318,229,600
1999 307,400,000
2000 322,659,300
2001 272,151,800
2002 248,437,200
2003 316,873,100
2004 366,453,800
2005 434,452,800
2006 341,791,700
2007 354,096,300
2008 361,551,500
2009 350,308,600
2010 367,676,800
2011 378,206,600
2012 388,712,600
2013 406,004,300
2014 824,077,100
2015 864,874,000
2016 826,895,900
2017 929,938,900
2018 1,016,480,000
2019 1,111,748,000
2020 382,756,300

Development Relevance: Trade in services differs from trade in goods because services are produced and consumed at the same time. Thus services to a traveler may be consumed in the producing country (for example, use of a hotel room) but are classified as imports of the traveler's country. In other cases services may be supplied from a remote location; for example, insurance services may be supplied from one location and consumed in another.

Limitations and Exceptions: Balance of payments statistics, the main source of information on international trade in services, have many weaknesses. Disaggregation of important components may be limited and varies considerably across countries. There are inconsistencies in the methods used to report items. And the recording of major flows as net items is common (for example, insurance transactions are often recorded as premiums less claims). These factors contribute to a downward bias in the value of the service trade reported in the balance of payments. Efforts are being made to improve the coverage, quality, and consistency of these data. Eurostat and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, for example, are working together to improve the collection of statistics on trade in services in member countries. Still, difficulties in capturing all the dimensions of international trade in services mean that the record is likely to remain incomplete. Cross-border intrafirm service transactions, which are usually not captured in the balance of payments, have increased in recent years. An example is transnational corporations' use of mainframe computers around the clock for data processing, exploiting time zone differences between their home country and the host countries of their affiliates. Another important dimension of service trade not captured by conventional balance of payments statistics is establishment trade - sales in the host country by foreign affiliates. By contrast, cross-border intrafirm transactions in merchandise may be reported as exports or imports in the balance of payments.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The balance of payments (BoP) is a double-entry accounting system that shows all flows of goods and services into and out of an economy; all transfers that are the counterpart of real resources or financial claims provided to or by the rest of the world without a quid pro quo, such as donations and grants; and all changes in residents' claims on and liabilities to nonresidents that arise from economic transactions. All transactions are recorded twice - once as a credit and once as a debit. In principle the net balance should be zero, but in practice the accounts often do not balance, requiring inclusion of a balancing item, net errors and omissions. The concepts and definitions underlying the data are based on the sixth edition of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6). Balance of payments data for 2005 onward will be presented in accord with the BPM6. The historical BPM5 data series will end with data for 2008, which can be accessed through the World Development Indicators archives. The complete balance of payments methodology can be accessed through the International Monetary Fund website (www.imf.org/external/np/sta/bop/bop.htm).

Aggregation method: Gap-filled total

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Private Sector & Trade Indicators

Sub-Topic: Exports