According to the report by United Nations, India leads regional inflow of Foreign Direct Investment or FDI in South Asia accounting for $ 34 billion investment during 2014. The report also says the upward trend is likely to continue in 2015 also. The report has placed China as the world’s largest FDI recipient.

The UNCTAD report for 2015 points out that FDI inflows to the country (India) surged by 22 per cent to about $ 34 billion improving its position to 9th top host country for FDI in 2014, over its rank of 15th in 2013. India is likely to maintain an upward trend in 2015 as economy recovery gains ground. FDI inflows to South Asia rose to $ 41 billion in 2014, primarily owing to good performance by India.

The top five recipients in South Asia of FDI inflows were India, followed by Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh ($ 2 billion each) and Sri Lanka ($ 1 billion). According to the report, China became the world’s largest recipient of FDI ($ 129 billion) toppling the US ($ 92 billion).

Asia overall bucked the global trend with historically high levels of inward FDI to developing economies at $ 681 billion marking a 2 per cent rise. Among the top 10 FDI recipients in the world, five are developing economies.

India was also the biggest investor in outward FDI in South Asia with $ 9.8 billion marking an increase of 486 per cent over 2013. However, India does not figure in the first top 20 countries for FDI outflows. The US had the largest outward flow of FDI ($ 337 billion) followed by Hong Kong-China ($ 142 billion) and China ($ 116 billion).