India maintained its number one position of being world’s top most greenfield FDI investment destination for the second year in a row, attracting $62.3 billion in 2016. According to the report from FDI Intelligence, a division of Financial Times, India has overtaken the US and China as far as FDI inflows were concerned in the previous year. It also noted that during 2016, FDI by capital investment saw a growth of 2 percent to $62.3 billion in 809 projects in India.
The report has pointed that the global investment landscape has changed considerably in the last year as FDI gravitated to locations experiencing the strongest economic growth, while locations in recession or facing high levels of uncertainty saw major declines. It further highlighted that during 2016, greenfield FDI continued to increase worldwide, with capital investment increasing by more than 6 percent to $776.2 billion, its highest since 2011, alongside an increase in job creation by 5 percent to 2.02 million. However, it noted that the number of FDI projects declined 3 percent to 12,644.
As per the report, China has outpaced the US to become the second biggest country for FDI by capital investment, recording $59 billion of announced FDI, compared with $48 billion-worth in the US. Globally, the real estate sector has claimed the top spot for capital investment, with $157.5 billion of announced FDI recorded in 2016, following an increase of 58 percent. In terms of value coal and natural gas seen an inflow of $121 billion, followed by alternate and renewable energy at $77 billion.