DISPROPORTIONALITY IN THE SERVICES SECTOR 5 45 per cent and agriculture remained the nation's principal economic activity. It is no longer so. Should current trends continue, this place will now be taken by services. Equally worth noticing, while the proportion of national output originating in agriculture has gone down in the past quarter of a century by as much as one-third, the secondary sector has failed to gain. The share of manufacturing and construction in national output continues to hover around 22 to 23 per cent, not much of an improvement over where it was three decades ago. The services sector has, to all appearances, overtaken the secondary sector. 4. There is of course nothing unusual p^r se in the emergence of services as the principal sector of economic activity. In the advanced industrial economies, they already occupy this position. Even in countries relatively less developed, the resource endowment may be such that services come to play a central role. In a small country with a salubrious climate, tourism could emerge as the dominant economic activity. There are also economies like Singapore and Hongkong, or for that matter, Panama, where certain special features pertaining to trade and payment arrangements could influence the course of events and lead to the emergence of services as the principal economic sector. Table 3: The Services Sector and National Economy Proport} Income Services ion of National Originating in the Sector (%) Proportion of Working Population in the Services Sector (%) Argentina, 1941 Australia, 1949-50 52.2 50.4 43.8 53.3 Austria, 1951 32.5 34.8 Canada, 1952 43.2 45.3 Chile, 1940 50.6 39.3 Denmark, 1952 39.2 42.6 Finland, 1952 30.4 31.6 France, 1938 35.1 39.2 West Germany, 1953 Italy, 1951 Japan, 1952 Netherlands, 1950 32.1 31.0 42.3 42.6 39.2 29.3 38.3 45.8 New Zealand, 1947 39.4 47.7 Norway, 1950 Philippines, 1940 -S^oSs^fWSQ 51.8 33.7 32S 38.0 27.1 35.8 ' US 4M Source: Celin dark, The'Canditions of Economic Progress, London, 960, Chapter X, Tafcle I.