is it possible for an economy to be based entirely in services?

Answer 1

Yes it you trade for goods. Hong Kong almost is if you count construction as a service.

* Labour force - by sector: (2006 est)[24]
o Agriculture and fishing: 0.3%
o Mining and quarrying: 0.05%
o Manufacturing: 5.1%
o Electricity, gas and water: 0.4%
o Construction: 8.0%
o Wholesale and retail trades: 10.5%
o Import and export trade: 16.4%
o Restaurants and hotels: 7.1%
o Transport and storage: 9.4%
o Communications: 1.1%
o Financial services: 5.3%
o Real estate and business services: 10.1%
o Public administration: 3.7%
o Education and health services: 7.6%
o Personal services: 9.0%
o Recreational, community and social services: 5.9%

Answer 2

That depends on how you're interpreting your own question.

You still need goods. Goods include food, gasoline, and other products required for normal life. Merely providing services would be fine if that economy were part of a larger economy that did contain goods.

Answer 3

Probably not, but you can certainly get fairly high. Last I checked I thought the US GDP was about 60% services. As you get closer to 100% it gets harder to get rid of the remaining non-service industries. There will always be people who prefer to have food (products) locally grown, and sometimes it will simply be cheaper to produce some things domestically.

Answer 4

yes. some of the small island nation economies (ie. jersey, isle of man) have banking and insurance represent almost 99% of thier GDP. they can just impor the rest of goods from neighbors