India's FDI inflows up 1.5% to $2.18 billion in Jan

Foreign direct investment into India grew by a meagre 1.5 per cent to $2.18 billion in January, according to the data by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

In January 2013, the FDI was at $2.15 billion.

However, for the April-January period, foreign investment inflows dipped 2 per cent to $18.74 billion from $19.1 billion during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, it said.

During the 10-months of this financial year, the highest FDI came in services ($1.80 billion), followed by pharmaceuticals ($1.26 billion), automobiles ($1 billion) and construction development ($966 million).

Mauritius led inflows into India with $4.11 billion of FDI during April-January, followed by Singapore ($3.67 billion), UK ($3.18 billion) and the Netherlands ($1.7 billion).

In December 2013, India received $1.1 billion of foreign inflows, unchanged from the level in the same month a year earlier.

The country needs foreign investment to help regain its growth momentum.

India's economic growth slowed to a decade's low of 4.5 per cent in 2012-13.

India is estimated to require about $1 trillion between 2012-13 and 2016-17, the 12th Five-Year Plan period, to fund infrastructure projects.

A decline in FDI would hurt the rupee, which depreciated to a record low of 68.85 against the US dollar on August 28 last year.

Since then the local currency has rebounded and is hovering at 61-62 per dollar.

Image: A man wearing tricolours of Indian flag; Photograph: Reuters