India has strong economic fundamentals

India's strong fundamentals and market size will continue to attract market-seeking greenfield investments, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to Lok Sabha on Monday.

Quoting the World Investment Report 2021, the Finance Minister said FDI inflows into India rose by 25.4 per cent to reach $64 billion in 2020, from $51 billion in 2019, becoming fifth largest recipient in the world in 2020, up from eighth position it held in the previous year. However, the announced greenfield projects in India contracted by 19 per cent in 2020, she said adding that this decline is significantly lower than the 44 per cent decline in developing economies.

"As has been witnessed in overall FDI inflows, India's strong fundamentals and market size will continue to attract market-seeking greenfield investments," she said.

With regard to India's contraction in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 7.3 per cent in 2020-21, she said this reflects the unparalleled effect of the 'once in a century' Covid-19 pandemic and the containment measures that were taken to control the pandemic.