A direction wise break-up of world trade in service for selected years since 1990 is provided in table 18.2. It can be observed that the European region dominates the scene, accounting for about 52% of world commercial services exports during 2005. Asian region and North American region, with shares of about 22% and 18% respectively, come next in order of importance. The share of Europe came down from 53.3% in 1990 to 48% in 1998, but recovered to about 52% in 2005. The share of North America went up from 19.2% in the year 1990 to 20.5% in the year 1998, but declined to 17.5% during 2005. The share of Asian Region increased from 16.8% in 1990 to 21.8% in 2005. The strong economic growth during 1995 had led to the increased share of export from Asian Region in the year 1995 (22.2%). It has decreased in case of European and North America during 1995. On the import front also Europe is the leading importer of commercial services accounting about 48% share in 2005. Asian Region is the second largest importer of commercial services (24.4% in 2005) followed by North America (15.6% in 2005). The import of Europe decreased from 48.4% in 1990 to 45.5% in 1998 and then recovered to 47.4% in 2005. The import of Asian Region had gone up from 22.0% in 1990 to 24.4% in 2005. The import of third largest importer North America has also marginally grown from 15.5% in 1990, whereas it had decreased in case of Europe and North America. An interesting feature of world trade in services is that the developed countries are both the major exporters and importers of commercial services.