Singapore's business receipts index (BRI) for services industries rose by 11.7 percent in the first quarter over the same period of last year, the government said on Friday.

According to the figures released by the Singapore Department of Statistics (SDS), the double-digit growth in overall business receipts was attributed to positive growth across all major services industries like financial and insurance, real estate and leasing, IT services, health care and business services.

The turnover in transport and storage services rose by 4.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter while the BRI for post and telecommunications grew by 8.7 percent during the same period.

The financial and insurance services industry grew by 32 percent in the first quarter year-on-year while the real estate and leasing services industry grew by 13.9 percent during the quarter.

The turnover of the IT services industry increased 10 percent in the first quarter this year over last year.

The indices for education services and business services grew by 3.2 percent and 9.6 percent respectively in the first quarter of 2007.

The healthcare and recreation activities services industries grew by 10.4 percent and 3.3 percent respectively in the same quarter.

The quarterly BRI for services industries measures the short- term changes in the amount of business or operating receipts on a quarterly basis.

Source: Xinhua