Services against goods
India’s exports, both kinds, US$ billion.
Services have grown faster than goods over this period, from a smaller base.
What actually pays for the goods deficit
India buys far more goods than it sells. It sells far more services than it buys. The two are usually discussed separately — here they are together.
The number that changes the story.
Where India ranks in the world
Services exports by country.
A selection of large services exporters, not the full world ranking.
What India actually sells
Composition of India’s services exports.
The World Bank groups computer services, communications and other business services together, so this single share covers software exports, IT-enabled services and the global capability centres that multinationals run from India. It is the closest thing India has to a dominant export product — and it faces no tariffs, no ports and no shipping.
About this data
Source: World Bank balance-of-payments statistics, current US dollars, refreshed automatically alongside the rest of the site. Services trade is not in UN Comtrade, which is why it needs a different source — and why it is missing from most trade dashboards.
Two caveats worth stating. Services data lags goods data by about a year, so the latest year here is earlier than elsewhere on the site. And balance-of-payments services figures are not directly comparable with customs-based goods figures: they are compiled differently, from different returns. The goods line on this page comes from India’s own UN Comtrade reporting and is shown for scale, not as an exact like-for-like.
How to cite this page. ValueChain. (2025). Services: the other half of India’s trade. https://valuechain.international/services.html
Spotted something that looks wrong? Tell us and we’ll check it against the source — corrections are welcome.