CII survey shows continuing growth in services sector

The Indian services sector is expected to continue its spiralling growth, according to the latest CII-ASCON Services Sector survey for the period 2003-2004.

According to the survey, the fast growing service sectors maintained their pace in the last financial year, often increasing their pace from the previous year. Even the moderately growing sectors did better than last year. The survey shows that the fastest growing sector was cellular telephones, which grew by more than 106 pc in the last year. This is still higher than the previous year, when the industry grew by 90 pc. The forecast for the next six months is a growth between 90-100 pc, according to the survey.

The next fastest growing service sector was housing finance. Sanctions of home loans rose by over 30 pc. It, however, had grown by 42 pc during the last fiscal. The survey states that this sector is expected to continue to grow at over 30 pc during the next six months. The survey also points out that tourist arrivals have increased by more than 17 pc, giving the hotel industry a cheerful year. The domestic software industry grew at 15 pc compared to the 13 pc growth last year.

ITeS-BPO rose by a phenomenal 54 pc. Software exports also marked a slight increase, as it registered 27 pc increase.