India received $628 bn from abroad in Dec

Foreign investment in India rose by $22.7 billion in the quarter ending December 2010 to $628 billion, mainly on account of increase in portfolio investment and FDI.

Total foreign fund inflows, including FDI, portfolio investment and external commercial borrowings (ECB), rose to $628.6 billion on December 31 from $605.9 billion during the end of September, according to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.

Direct investment into the country went up by $6.2 billion to $198 billion.

Portfolio investment in the country during the quarter also grew by $7.6 billion to $171.7 billion over the previous quarter.

Liabilities in the nature of trade credits, loans and currency and deposits cumulatively increased by $9 billion to $258.9 billion due to availability of overseas funds at substantially lower interest rates than in domestic markets.

Loans to Indian companies went up by $5.5 billion or 4% during the quarter ended December to $140.1 billion.

During the October-December period, currency and deposits liabilities grew marginally to $51.4 billion.

India's outbound investments also grew by $4.6 billion over the previous quarter to $407.5 billion in the October-December.

With this, the net claims of foreigners and NRIs on India rose to $221.1 billion during October-December 2010, up by $18.2 billion or 9% from the previous quarter.