The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in its latest data showed that India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the services sector has dropped by about 23% to $6.7 billion in the last financial year (FY18) as compared to $8.68 billion in previous financial year (FY17). The services sector contributes over 60% to country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and includes finance banking, insurance, outsourcing, R&D, courier, tech testing and analysis.
Decline in foreign inflows could put pressure on the country's balance of payments and may also impact the value of the rupee. FDIs are important for India as it would require huge investments in the coming years to overhaul the infrastructure sector to boost growth. Besides, FDI in chemicals sector too registered a marginal decline in growth rate in 2017-18, when it attracted $ 1.30 billion investments as compared to $1.39 billion in 2016-17.
As far as overall FDI inflows are concerned, the growth rate recorded a five-year low of 3% at $44.85 billion in FY18. The slowdown in FDI was on account of re-routing of investments to economies like the US which witnessed an increase in interest rates together with a stronger dollar. The declining growth rate of FDI is more of an exogenous effect and the policy makers will have to continue to focus on macro-economic management.
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