Liberia: Insurance and financial services (% of commercial service imports)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2024, Liberia's insurance and financial services (% of commercial service imports) rose 0.41 percentage points on 2023 (from 8.78% to 9.19%).

Across the 27 yearly changes before that (1980 to 2023), the average change was +0.03 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 5.29 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.1 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 16.34 percentage points in 2018 and the biggest yearly fall was 16.15 percentage points in 2019. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2015 to 2024 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains 27% of the movement over 10 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

In 2024, Liberia had the 11th highest value of the 27 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Liberia in the 2024 ranking

• Bhutan — 7th of 27: 11.36%
• Sierra Leone — 8th of 27: 10.07%
• Cameroon — 9th of 27: 9.36%
• Tanzania — 11th of 27: 8.06%
• Guinea — 12th of 27: 7.94%
• Fiji — 13th of 27: 7.88%

What this measures

Financial services covers services related to financial intermediation, financial risk management, liquidity transformation or auxiliary financial activities. It also includes insurance and pension scheme services which are services related to providing life insurance and annuities, non-life insurance, reinsurance, pensions, standardised guarantees and auxiliary services to insurance, pension schemes, and standardised guarantee schemes. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of service imports which are commercial services provided by non-residents to residents.

Limitations: 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.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 30 values

Insurance and financial services (% of commercial service imports) in nearby economies

• Angola — 7.08% (2025)
• Benin — 2.67% (2023)
• Botswana — 0.57% (2025)
• Burkina Faso — 16.83% (2024)
• Burundi — 10.59% (2025)
• Cabo Verde — 3.73% (2025)
• Cameroon — 9.36% (2024)
• Comoros — 6.55% (2023)
• Congo, Dem. Rep.

More private sector & trade data for Liberia

• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 86.96% (2025)
• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$2.49 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$2.07 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports to high-income economies (% of total merchandise exports) — 75.97% (2023)
• Merchandise exports by the reporting economy, residual (% of total merchandise exports) — 0% (2023)
• Merchandise exports by the reporting economy (current US$) — US$153.7 million (2023)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports) — 20.52% (2023)
• Merchandise imports by the reporting economy, residual (% of total merchandise imports) — 0% (2023)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Liberia's insurance and financial services (% of commercial service imports)?

9.19% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1979?

It is down 0.81 percentage points from 10% in 1979. The highest value was 32.87% in 2018 and the lowest 2.2% in 2006.

How does Liberia rank?

11th highest of 27 economies with data for 2024.

Is the latest change in insurance and financial services (% of commercial service imports) unusual for Liberia?

In 2024, Liberia's insurance and financial services (% of commercial service imports) rose 0.41 percentage points on 2023 (from 8.78% to 9.19%). Across the 27 yearly changes before that (1980 to 2023), the average change was +0.03 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 5.29 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.1 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator TM.VAL.INSF.ZS.WT, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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