The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in its World Investment Report 2018, has said that India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows dropped to $40 billion in 2017 as compared to $44 billion in 2016. It also indicated that in South Asia, FDI inflows contracted by 4 percent to $52 billion, due to a fall in inflows to India.
According to the report, cross-border M&A sales, however, increased to $23 billion from $8 billion, driven by a few large deals in extractive and technology related industries. It noted that outflows from India, the main source of FDI in South Asia, more than doubled to $11 billion.
The report further highlighted that globally, FDI activity has decreased by 23 percent to $1.43 trillion in 2017, as compared to $1.87 trillion in the previous year. It pointed out that the decline is in stark contrast to other macroeconomic variables, such as GDP and trade, which saw substantial improvement in 2017.