Understanding and characterizing South Africa's services sector exports

François Steenkamp, Isaac Kurasha, Carla Orffer and Megan Bryer

No wp-2026-94, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: This paper examines the performance and composition of South Africa's services exports and use economic complexity and relatedness metrics to identify future services export diversification opportunities. South Africa's services exports have underperformed in relation to global and domestic trends, which is consistent with the sector not being able to take advantage of the rising tradability of services. The country's services exports basket is oriented towards low-complexity traditional services, particularly personal and business travel services, and primarily services-developed economies.

Keywords: Economic complexity; Economic development; South Africa; Service exports (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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