Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has stated in its report that India’s export of service is expected to boom after a bad phase in the first two quarters of 2009. The overall services exports fell by 7% during the January-March (2009), and by 3% in the succeeding quarter, compared with a positive growth of 14% and 22%, respectively, in the first two quarters of 2008. “All the major segments of services exports, except insurance and financial services, witnessed contraction since January 2009,” said the chamber in the report.
FICCI President Harshpati Singhania stated: “This has resulted in a subdued growth of 12.4% in India’s total services exports in 2008-09, compared with over 22% increase in 2007-08.”
It was stated in the report that India’s exports of software services slumped by 14% in the first half of 2009. Earnings from travel fell by 26% during the January-March quarter, and by 9% in the successive quarter, symptomatic of the consequence of the slowdown on tourist arrivals.
Tourism fell by 9.5% in the second half of 2008-09, and by 1.8% in the first quarter of the current fiscal, said the FICCI report.
Revenue from trade-related services curved in sharply by 56% and 27%, respectively, in the first and second quarters of 2009. Among other major segments, communication and business camp, professional services, including management consultancy, architectural, engineering, and technical and other business services, also experienced negative growth ranging from 4% to 53%.
Source: The Economic Times