Papua New Guinea: Insurance and financial services (% of commercial service exports)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2024, Papua New Guinea's insurance and financial services (% of commercial service exports) fell 1.11 percentage points on 2023 (from 1.18% to 0.07%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1994 to 2023), the average change was +0.01 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 5.15 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations below 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 12.54 percentage points in 2019 and the biggest yearly fall was 19.59 percentage points in 2020. 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 10% 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, Papua New Guinea had the 23rd highest value of the 23 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 Papua New Guinea in the 2024 ranking

• Solomon Islands — 19th of 23: 0.93%
• Nicaragua — 20th of 23: 0.92%
• Fiji — 21st of 23: 0.33%
• Ethiopia — 23rd of 23: 0.06%

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 exports which are commercial services provided by residents to non-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 49 values

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

• Australia — 4.75% (2025)
• Brunei Darussalam — 1.99% (2025)
• Cambodia — 0.34% (2025)
• China — 1.46% (2025)
• Fiji — 0.33% (2024)
• French Polynesia — 1.05% (2016)
• Hong Kong SAR, China — 28.76% (2025)
• Indonesia — 3.96% (2025)
• Japan

More private sector & trade data for Papua New Guinea

• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 62.04% (2025)
• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$4.62 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$15.54 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports to high-income economies (% of total merchandise exports) — 69.25% (2023)
• Merchandise exports by the reporting economy, residual (% of total merchandise exports) — 0.000374% (2023)
• Merchandise exports by the reporting economy (current US$) — US$10.86 billion (2023)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports) — 58.93% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise imports)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Papua New Guinea's insurance and financial services (% of commercial service exports)?

0.07% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1976?

It is down 0.69 percentage points from 0.77% in 1976. The highest value was 23.51% in 2019 and the lowest 0.07% in 2024.

How does Papua New Guinea rank?

23rd highest of 23 economies with data for 2024.

Is the latest change in insurance and financial services (% of commercial service exports) unusual for Papua New Guinea?

In 2024, Papua New Guinea's insurance and financial services (% of commercial service exports) fell 1.11 percentage points on 2023 (from 1.18% to 0.07%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1994 to 2023), the average change was +0.01 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 5.15 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations below 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 TX.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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