India has been ranked by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as the seventh largest

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player in the global services trade with value of exports and imports aggregating $261 billion in 2011.

With exports at $137 billion and imports at $124 billion, India is among the five countries among the top ten players which ended the year 2011 with a surplus of trade in commercial services, according to a WTO report.

The Indian economy is mainly driven by services with the sector contributing over 55 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The US lived up to its reputation of a global powerhouse of commercial services with exports of $581 billion, far exceeding its imports of $395 billion, the report noted.

Though Germany was ranked as the second biggest player in the global services trade, it had more of imports than exports with a deficit of $36 billion. Its exports of services were $253 billion while imports aggregated to $289 billion in 2011, it said.

China which runs a big surplus in merchandise trade had a deficit in the services with imports exceeding exports by $54 billion.

"The value of world exports of commercial services rose by 11 per cent in 2011 to $4,170 billion, exceeding pre-crisis levels of $3,850 in 2008," the report said.

While Europe showed signs of recovery, with annual growth of 11 per cent in 2011, Asian economies saw their growth rate halved compared with 2010, mainly due to slower growth in transportation services and other commercial services, it added.

The report also noted that services supplied by US majority-owned foreign affiliates to China and India proved more resilient to the global crisis than exports of cross border services.