MUMBAI: Good news for the advertising fraternity! The services sector has continued its steady growth for the period April-June 2003 - says the latest Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-Ascon Services Sector Survey.

The survey concludes that the services sector is estimated to grow between 7 to 7.5 per cent this year. This, it says, is significant, given the fact that services contribute the largest towards growth of the Indian economy.

According to the CII-Ascon Survey, the fastest growing sector has been the cellular services sector, which registered a subscriber growth rate of 115 per cent over the period April-June 2003 over April-June 2002.

The CII-Ascon Survey says that the housing finance sector also registered impressive growth. Sanctions of home loans registered 35 per cent growth while disbursements registered a growth of 34 percent in April-June 2003 over April-June 2002.

The construction industry also had a positive growth. The industry recorded a growth of 15 per cent on turnover and an impressive 42.7 per cent on exports.

The tourism industry also maintained a high growth with tourist arrivals increasing by 12 per cent. The industry rallied forcefully after the Iraq war and tourist arrivals are expected to rise up to 15-20 per cent for the next six months. Occupancy in hotels are also expected at 15-20 per cent in the coming months.

The IT industry also maintained a high growth trend. Turnover in hardware registered a growth of 16 per cent while it was 12 per cent during the last year. Sale of personal computers and software recorded a growth of 12 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

The leasing industry, unfortunately, had a dismal year adds the CII-Ascon report. It fell by 2 per cent and the outlook is negative in the coming months. The CII-Ascon Survey also attributes the reason for the poor showing to the Reserve Bank of India’s restrictive policies, which curtails the growth of NBFC’s (non banking finance corporations) drastically.