FDI inflows to India decline by $40 bn in 2017 from $44 bn in 2016; outflows more than double to $11 bn: Report

New Delhi: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to India declined to $40 billion in 2017 from $44 billion in the previous year, said UNCTAD’S World Investment Report 2018. “FDI inflows to South Asia contracted by 4 percent to $52 billion, owing to a drop in inflows to India,” the report said. [caption id=“attachment_1606415” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative image. Reuters[/caption] As per the UNCTAD, the foreign inflows to India decreased from $44 billion in 2016 to $40 billion in 2017. Cross-border M&A sales, however, rose from $8 billion to $23 billion driven by a few large deals in extractive and technology-related industries. The report said the Petrol Complex Pte Ltd (Singapore), owned by Rosneftegaz (Russian Federation) acquired a 49 percent stake of Essar Oil Ltd, the second largest privately-owned Indian oil company, for $13 billion.

An investor group including eBay (United States), Microsoft Corporation (United States) and Tencent Holdings (China) acquired a stake in Flipkart Internet for $1.4 billion, and SoftBank (Japan) acquired a 20 percent stake in One97 Communications also for $1.4 billion, it added.

According to the report, outflows from India, the main source of FDI in South Asia, more than doubled to $11 billion. India’s state-owned oil and gas company ONGC has been actively investing in foreign assets in the recent years. After acquiring a 26 percent stake in Vankorneft (Russian Federation) in 2016, it bought a 15 percent stake in an offshore field in Namibia from Tullow Oil (founded in Ireland and headquartered in the United Kingdom) in 2017. By the end of 2017, ONGC had 39 projects in 18 countries, producing 2,85,000 barrels of oil and oil-equivalent gas per day.