Business Desk :
Foreign direct investment in Bangladesh dropped 10.8% to $2.6 billion in 2020.
Except for India, all other countries in South Asia observed negative growth in FDI inflows, according to an annual report prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). FDI in India rose around 27% to $64 billion last year.
The increase in FDI inflows in India pushed up the overall growth of foreign investments in South Asia to 20.1% to $71 billion last year.
This is the second time FDI inflows in Bangladesh slumped, with 20.47% fall registered in 2019.
FDI inflows in Pakistan declined by 6% to $2.1 billion in 2020, “cushioned by continued investments in power generation and telecommunication industries,” said World Investment Report 2021 published on June 21.
Afghanistan experienced the highest decline in FDI inflows, 67% to 0.013 billion.
The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Iran and Bhutan saw a decline of 64%, 43%, 32%, 11% and 7% in FDI inflows.
The UNCTAD estimated that this year foreign investment globally will be 25% lower than in 2019 before Covid-19 broke out across the world.
