India retains world’s highest FDI recipient crown, says report

New Delhi: India retained its top rank of being the world’s premier greenfield FDI investment destination for the second consecutive year, attracting $62.3 billion in 2016, says a report.

India has remained ahead of China and the US as far as FDI inflows were concerned in the last year, said the “fDi Report 2017”, compiled by fDi intelligence, a division of the Financial Times. FDI by capital investment saw an increase of 2% to $62.3 billion in 809 projects during 2016 in India. “India managed to keep the crown as the world’s number one location for greenfield capital investment for the second year running—ahead of China and the US,” the report said.

The global investment landscape, the report said, has changed considerably in 2016 as FDI gravitated to locations experiencing the strongest economic growth, while locations in recession or facing high levels of uncertainty saw major declines. In 2016, greenfield FDI continued to rise worldwide, with capital investment increasing by more than 6% to $776.2 billion, its highest since 2011, alongside an increase in job creation by 5% to 2.02 million. However, the number of FDI projects declined 3% to 12,644.

China has overtaken 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%. In value terms, coal and natural gas witnessed an inflow of $121 billion, followed by alternate and renewable energy at $77 billion.