RBI Says FDI Inflow Showed an Increase of 18%

Foreign direct investment (FDI) during the previous fiscal grew 18 per cent to Rs 28.25 lakh crore, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.

FDI increased by Rs 4,33,300 crore, including revaluation of past investments, during 2017-18 to reach Rs 28,24,600 crore in March 2018 at market value, according to RBI data on ‘Census on Foreign Liabilities and Assets of Indian Direct Investment Companies, 2017-18’.

The RBI said as many as 23,065 companies responded to the latest round of the census, of which, 20,732 firms had FDI or ODI in their balance sheet in March 2018.

Overseas direct investment (ODI) by Indian companies increased by 5 per cent to Rs 5.28 lakh crore.

“FDI companies witnessed a substantial increase in other investment liabilities, largely due to the increase in trade credit,” the RBI said.

The census showed that Mauritius continued to be the largest source of FDI in India (19.7 per cent) followed by the US, the UK, Singapore and Japan.

In case of overseas investment by Indian companies, Singapore (17.5 per cent) was the major destination, followed by the Netherlands, Mauritius and the US.

Manufacturing sector had majority share in total FDI. ‘Information and communication services’ and ‘financial and insurance activities’ were other major recipients of FDI.

The RBI said the data released are the provisional results of 2017-18.

In the census participating companies, 15,104 were common from the previous census round and 5,628 reported for the first time. Besides, 1,916 companies that reported in the previous round did not report in the latest round.

At the aggregate level, foreign equity participation was very high as 84 per cent of the companies that reported inward FDI were subsidiaries of foreign companies (i.E., single foreign investor holding more than 50 per cent of total equity), RBI said.