India's services sector seen on robust growth path

Monday, 14 June 2004, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: India's booming services sector is likely to move ahead on a robust growth path in the coming months as increase in consumer spending fuels demand for amenities such as housing and mobile phones, says a survey. According to the survey conducted jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Asconm, service sectors maintained their pace of growth in the last financial year ended March 31, 2004. "Even the moderately growing sectors did better than last year," said the survey conducted for fiscal 2003-04. The report said the fastest growing sector in 2003-04 was mobile telephones, which grew by more than 106 percent, up from a growth of 90 percent logged in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003. The forecast for the next six months is a growth between 90 and 100 percent. The next fastest growing service sector was housing finance. Sanctions of home loans rose by over 30 percent. It, however, had grown by 42 percent during fiscal 2002-03. The CII survey said the housing finance sector is expected to continue to grow at over 30 percent over the next six months. Tourist arrivals increased by more than 17 percent in 2003-04, up from a growth of 15 percent logged in the previous year. Tourist arrivals will grow by another 15-20 percent in the current fiscal, said the survey. The domestic software industry posted 15 percent growth in the last fiscal. While the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry rose by a whopping 54 percent, software exports registered an increase of 27 percent. The domestic software industry is expected to grow at 10-15 percent over the next six months, while the BPO segment is expected to mark a growth of more than 50 percent.
Source: IANS
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