Cellular phone industry tops services sector growth in ''04

New Delhi: According to the latest CII-ASCON Services survey, which covers the period between April 2003 and March 2004, the fast growing service sectors maintained their growth in the last financial year. Even the moderately growing sectors did better than in the previous year.

The fastest growing sector was cellular telephones, which grew by more than 106 per cent in 2003-04, against 90 percent in 2002-03. The survey forecast for the next six months is a growth of about 90-100 per cent.

Housing finance was the second-fastest growing sector within the services industry. Sanctions of home loans rose by over 30 percent during 2003-04, a bit lower than the previous year's growth of 42 percent. The projection for the next six months stands at 30 percent.

On the IT front the domestic software sector grew 15 percent against 13 percent the preceding year while ITeS-BPO sector rose by a phenomenal 54 percent. Software exports were up marginally at 27 percent against 26 percent the previous fiscal. The home software industry is expected to grow at 10-15 percent over the last six months, while the ITeS-BPO sector is likely to grow more than 50 percent. Software exports will rise by more than 20 percent the CII study says.

There is good news for the hospitality industry too. Tourist arrivals registered a rise of 17 percent in 2004 marking good tidings for the hotels industry reeling from the 9/11 crisis. Tourist arrivals had arisen 2 percent from the previous year. The survey estimates that tourist arrivals will be up 20 percent in '05.

Good performance on the exports front led to good news for the cargo industry as well. Overall, the industry grew by eight per cent, while exports of air cargo rose by 11 per cent.

Imports of air cargo rose by more than seven per cent and the outlook for the next six months for the industry is a growth of 5-10 per cent.

Cargo export and cargo imports are also estimated to maintain a growth of about 5-10 per cent.