FDI slips by over 43% to around $2.2 bn in May

India's foreign direct investment (FDI) declined by over 43 per cent to around $2.2 billion in May, 2009, compared to $3.9 billion in the same period last year on account of global recession.     

"FDI was around $2.2 billion in May," Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Ajay Shankar told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by CII-Institute of Logistics.     

And "we think that liquidity is improving and confidence in the economy is rising. These numbers (FDI) should pick up," Shankar said.     

The government had scaled down the FDI target by $5 billion from $35 billion last fiscal. Cumulative FDI from April 2000 to March 2009 stands close to about $90 billion.     

Thanks to robust trends in the first six months of the last fiscal, FDI in 2008-09 was $27.3 billion against $24.5 billion in 2007-08.