SINGAPORE - Services now account for a quarter of Singapore's total exports and is growing faster than our exports of goods, highlighting how this sector of the economy has grown in importance, latest government figures show.

In response to this trend, quarterly statistics on Singapore's exports and imports will now include data on the services trade, in addition those on goods, the Ministry of Trade and Industry announced at a media briefing on Tuesday.

The growing importance of the export in services reflects a structural shift in the economy, the MTI said in a report released alongside its quarterly Economic Survey of Singapore.

Between 2004 and 2014, services as a share of total trade rose from 19.7 per cent to 26.7 per cent, while its share of total exports went up from 16.9 per cent to 25.5 per cent.

In contrast, Singapore's goods exports have been sluggish in recent years, in line with slowing global trade.

International Enterprise (IE) Singapore's trade review, also released on Tuesday, showed that Singapore's total trade in services grew 2.4 per cent last year, following an 8.9 per cent increase in 2013.

This was better than the growth in Singapore's exports of goods which edged up 0.3 per cent last year, after dipping 0.5 per cent in 2013.