News: Indian FDI inflows rise to $6.1 b in April-Oct

(BL 21/12/2006) New Delhi - Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into the country registered a 134.62 per cent increase in April-October 2006 to touch $ 6.1 billion as compared to $ 2.6 billion in the same period last year.

In October 2006, FDI inflows stood at $ 1.7 billion as compared to $ 0.412 billion received in the same month last year.

"The FDI inflows of $ 6.1 billion for April-October 2006 do not include reinvested earnings. If reinvested earnings are included, the inflows for the period would exceed the total FDI received last year", Kamal Nath, Union Commerce and Industry Minister, told presspersons here today.

Services, electrical equipment, cement and gypsum, drugs and pharmaceuticals and hotel and tourism are the five major sectors that received FDI inflows in October 2006. Two-thirds of the investment ($ 1.1 billion) during October 2006 came from Mauritius. The Netherlands, the US and Cyprus are the major countries from where inflows have been received.

The top inflows in October 2006 came from SDC Mauritius ($ 517 million, financial services through Indian partner Kappa industries), Oracle Global ($ 349 million, software), EMMAR MGF ($ 150 million, real estate), Cementrum IBV, Netherlands ($ 124 million, cement and gypsum), and Carraro SA ($ 25 million, agricultural machinery).

Kamal Nath pointed out that most of major investments made in October 2006 were first-mile investments and expressed confidence that there would be more investments from these investors in the next one year.

The Delhi regional office of the RBI registered inflows of $ 727 million, accounting for 43 per cent of the total inflows during October 2006. Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai are the other major regions that have received FDI inflows.