India received $64bn FDI inflow in 2020

India received $64 billion in Foreign Direct Investment in 2020, the fifth biggest recipient of inflows on the planet, as per an UN report which said the Covid-19 second wave in the nation weighs intensely on the countries in general economic activities yet its strong fundamentals give “optimism” for the medium term.

The World Investment Report 2021 by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), released Monday, said worldwide FDI streams have been seriously hit by the pandemic and they plunged by 35% in 2020 to $1 trillion from $1.5 trillion the previous year.

Lockdowns caused by Covid-19 all throughout the globe slowed down existing investment projects, and prospects of a recession led multinational enterprises (MNEs) to reassess new projects.

The report said in India, FDI increased 27% to $64 billion of every 2020 from $51 billion out of 2019, pushed up by acquisitions in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, making the country the fifth biggest FDI recipient on the globe.