Mumbai, Oct 3 : India's services exports went up by 8.4 per cent to $28.72 billion in August this year over the same month of the previous year, while imports fell 0.8 per cent to $15.10 billion, provisional data released by the RBI on Tuesday showed. This comes as welcome news as data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry last month based on an estimate had pegged services exports at $26.39 billion in August, which was a marginal decline from the corresponding figure of $26.5 billion for August 2022. The provisional figure for imports had been put at $13.86 billion. However, the Commerce Ministry said, 'The data for August 2023 is an estimation, which will be revised based on RBI's subsequent release.' Driven by its strong software and IT services sector, India is one of the largest services exporters in the world. Since India offers low-cost knowledge-based services, the demand for them does not come down drastically even amid a global economic slowdown. However, big ticket orders do get affected which reduces the rate of growth of services exports and impacts hiring in the big IT software companies such as TCS, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Wipro. /IANS