- According to the World Investment Report 2019, released by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) , released on June 12, 2019 Foreign Direct Investment to India grew by 6 percent to 42 billion dollars in 2018, with strong inflows in the manufacturing, communication and financial services sectors, and cross-border merger and acquisition activities.
- The report ranked India among the top 20 host economies for FDI inflows in 2017-18. India was ranked at 10th whereas USA was the largest recipient in 2018.
- It said that Foreign Direct Investment inflows to South Asia increased 3.5 percent to 54 billion dollars.
- The report added that India has historically accounted for 70 to 80 per cent of inflows to the subregion. Further, the growth in cross-border Merger & Acquisitions for India to 33 billion dollars in 2018 was primarily due to transactions worth 16 billion dollars in retail trade, which includes e-commerce, and telecommunication.
- The report says that Global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows continued their slide in 2018, falling by 13 per cent to $1.3 trillion. The decline – the third consecutive year’s fall in FDI – was mainly due to large-scale repatriations of accumulated foreign earnings by United States multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the first two quarters of 2018, following tax reforms introduced in that country at the end of 2017.
