At a time when India is witnessing a low Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow growth, it is Karnataka that is standing out. Karnataka witnessed a substantial increase in inflow from $2.1 billion in the financial year 2016-17 to $8.6 billion in the financial year 2017-18, registering a growth of more than 300%, an analysis by Care Ratings showed.
India recorded a five-year-low FDI inflow growth rate of 3% at $44.85 billion in 2017-18 after a witnessing a whopping 29% growth in the 2015-16 and 27% in 2014-15. Top performers like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat also witnessed a sharp decline in FDI inflow growth. Other states that received more inflows are Tamil Nadu with 57% growth and Delhi with 30% growth compared with the FDI inflows in FY17, Care Ratings said.
In absolute terms, Maharashtra continues to be the top choice for FDIs. The FDI inflows to Maharashtra have been $13.4 billion much higher than Karnataka’s $8.6 billion. However, Maharashtra witnessed a decline of 32% from $19.7 billion in FY17. The FDI inflows to Andhra Pradesh declined by 43% while that of Gujarat have fallen by 38% in FY18.
The main sectors that received maximum foreign inflows in the last fiscal include services ($6.7 billion), computer software and hardware ($6.15 billion), telecommunications ($6.21 billion), trading ($4.34 billion), construction ($2.73 billion) automobile ($2 billion) and power ($1.62 billion).
Mauritius emerged as the largest source of FDI in India with $15.94 billion in 2017-18 followed by Singapore ($12.18 billion), Netherlands ($2.8 billion), the United States ($2.1 billion) and Japan ($1.61 billion).
