BANGALORE, India — After three years of strong growth, India's top 20 information technology providers are reporting sharp drops in annual growth rates as the global economy slows.

Growth rates for the previous 12 months were 24 percent, down from 41 percent during the same period a year ago.

Leading IT services exporters also reported slowing annual growth that slipped 16 percent to 29 percent year-on-year. The companies were hurt primarily by currency fluctuations, according to a survey by the market researcher CyberMedia.

Most Indian service exporters are paid in U.S. dollars. When the dollar falls in value against the Indian rupee, net sales drop. Still, operating margins held up under the pressure. Currency fluctuations resulted in "an over 10-percent hit right away in rupee earnings for exporters," said Pradeep Gupta, publisher of CyberMedia.

The survey said Tata Consultancy Services remained the top Inidan software services exporter, followed by Infosys Technologies and Wipro Ltd.

Hewlett-Packard led overseas IT services companies here last year with over $3 billion in sales, followed by Ingram Micro with over $2 billion and Cisco Systems with $1.25 billion. Intel Corp.'s sales in India were just under $1 billion, the survey found.