Services sector which contributes more than 50% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has witnessed its exports rising by 5.3 per cent to $ 12.94 billion in September this year compared to the same month last year. In August 2014, services exports were at $ 12.24 billion.
Import of services during the month of September fell by 9.1 per cent to $ 6.17 billion against the year-ago period, while they increased by 7.5 per cent at $ 6.77 billion in August over the year-ago month. The cumulative receipts of exports in services during April-September stood at $ 79.05 billion, while cumulative payments (or imports) were at $ 43.04 billion.
The government has been prioritizing the sector and the finance minister Arun Jaitley calling services sector is a low-hanging fruit has said that India needs to be aggressive in its approach while expanding services exports. Jaitley had pointed out that sectors such as healthcare, tourism, research and development, education and entertainment have enormous potential.
While service exports were at $151.47 billion in 2013-14, merchandise exports were more than double at $312.61 billion. However, India's share in the world services exports was only 3% as compared to EU's share of 42% and China's 4%. RBI releases the provisional aggregate monthly data on India’s international trade in services with a lag of 45 days. The monthly data on services are provisional and generally undergo revision when the balance of payments (BoP) data are released on a quarterly basis.