Inward Foreign Investments in India and China: A Comparative Perspective

A Comparative Perspective

India and China have been the major recipients of FDI inflows in the last two decades. The level and growth of the flows though have been much higher for China than India. This phenomenon have given rise to a huge literature exploring the reasons for such divergence. Data shows that the matters have compounded after the global financial crisis. During the crisis year the gap was almost eliminated. Interestingly, after the crisis year the flows diverged sharply with increase for China and slow down for India. This was even when China was more affected initially by the crisis than India. The paper thus takes a fresh look at the factors responsible for the divergence in FDI inflows to the two countries especially after the Global Financial Crisis. Simple correlations between probable determinants and FDI flows for both the countries have been used to understand the causes of the divergence and their implications.