Reserve Bank of India Releases Provisional Results of 2025-26 Census on Foreign Liabilities and Assets of Indian Direct Investment Entities

Key facts

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the provisional results of the 2025-26 round of its annual Census on Foreign Liabilities and Assets (FLA), covering cross-border liabilities and assets of Indian entities with inward/outward direct investment, including companies, LLPs, AIFs and partnership firms.
• The FLA census captures foreign liabilities and assets in terms of direct investment, portfolio investment and other investments (trade credit, loans, currency and deposits, other payables/receivables), along with activity sector, sales, purchases, exports and imports.
• Variations in outstanding foreign assets/liabilities between the beginning and end of a financial year differ from flows recorded in India's balance of payments (BoP) statistics as they include valuation changes due to price and exchange rate movements.
• A total of 43,123 entities reported FDI and/or ODI as of end-March 2026, of which around 97 per cent were unlisted and held a major share of total FDI equity capital at face value.
• India's outstanding ODI stock rose 40.8 per cent year-on-year to ₹16.71 lakh crore as of March 2026, outpacing the 8.5 per cent growth in inward FDI stock to ₹70.72 lakh crore.
• Outward equity investment rose to ₹13.30 lakh crore from ₹10.09 lakh crore, while outward debt investment almost doubled to ₹3.41 lakh crore from ₹1.77 lakh crore; inward FDI equity rose to ₹68.45 lakh crore and debt to ₹2.27 lakh crore.
• The ratio of inward FDI to ODI moderated to 4.2 times at end-March 2026 from 5.5 times a year ago.
• Non-financial companies accounted for more than 90 per cent of FDI equity at face value; in market value terms, listed and unlisted companies had almost equal share in FDI equity, while unlisted companies held 96.6 per cent of FDI debt.
• Other investment liabilities with unrelated non-resident entities grew 11.9 per cent (y-o-y) in rupee terms, while other investment assets with unrelated non-residents rose 16.1 per cent as of end-March 2026.
• The United States (16.5 per cent), Mauritius (14.5 per cent), Singapore (13.7 per cent) and the United Kingdom (10.8 per cent) were the top sources of outstanding FDI.
• Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United States were the top ODI destinations, together accounting for more than 50 per cent of outstanding ODI.
• Manufacturing accounted for the highest share of total outstanding FDI equity capital at market value at 50.2 per cent, followed by services at 44.8 per cent; financial and insurance activities accounted for 16.2 per cent of FDI stock, and telecommunications/computer programming and related information services accounted for 14.8 per cent.
• 36,168 Indian entities reported inward direct investment, of which about 75 per cent were subsidiaries of foreign companies; an Indian entity is defined as a foreign subsidiary if a single foreign investor holds more than 50 per cent of its total equity.
• The previous data release in the series, covering the 2024-25 census round, was published on October 29, 2025 on the RBI website.