Gujarat sees a further decline in foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows, going by the data revealed in Socio-Economic Review 2018-19. The FDI inflows to Gujarat has seen a downfall from $2.91 billion in 2017-18 to $1.803 billion in 2018-19, it said quoting Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
Gujarat had achieved all time high FDI of $3.36 billion in 2016-17. According to the figures released by DPIIT recently, Maharashtra ranks first having garnered $11.36 billion or 25.66% of the national share. Gujarat ranks sixth with about 4% share, after Chennai which drew $2.6 billion, contributing 5.89% to the country’s share. Maharashtra, which also covers Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, also saw a decline in its FDI inflow that stood at $13.42 billion in 2017-2018. FDI inflows in Delhi, which covers the national capital, parts of UP and Haryana, has seen a steady rise in the past few years and is ranked second.
Besides Japanese car maker Suzuki Motor Corp, which has planned huge investments in the state for car manufacturing factories and a lithium-ion making unit, China’s SAIC Motor Corporation-owned British automobile brand MG Motor has recently started rolling out cars from its factory in Halol.
“There are many foreign companies that have lined up investments in Gujarat. From the past few years the FDI flow has been declining globally due to various reasons. This year we expect a good inflow of FDI as many companies have finalised their plans and are at the stage of investing,” said a Gujarat government official.
For the financial year 2018-19, the total FDI equity inflows to India has been $44.37 billion. The top sectors that received highest FDI inflows include services sector (21%), computer software & hardware (14%), trading (10%), telecom (6%) and automobile (6%). The top five investing countries in equity inflows include Singapore (37%), Mauritius (18%), Netherlands (9%), US (7%) and Japan (7%).
In 2013-14 Gujarat’s share in the total inflows to India was about 3.5% which went up steadily to 7.75% in 2016-17. The downward trend which started in 2017-18 when the state’s share was reduced to 4.66% has now gone down to 4.06%, according to DPIIT data.
