KARACHI
The country received foreign direct investment (FDI) of $ 222.6 million in the month of July 2017, up by 162 per cent compared to $ 84.7 million in the same period last year.
In June 2017, the country had received an amount of $ 199 million in the head of direct investment, while investors pulled back their $ 672.3 million in total foreign investment compared to an investment of $ 340.6 million in June 2016.
The oil and gas, power sectors and construction Industries supported total foreign investment of the country, which increased by only 57.9 per cent to $ 212 million in the first month of current fiscal year compared with $ 134.3 million in the same period last year, the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said here on Wednesday.
During July 2017, the SBP has received an amount of $ 0.7 million in Foreign Public Portfolio Investment (Debt Securities), which increased by 193.6 per cent during July 2017 which was in (negative) $ 0.8 million in the same period last year, the data said.
In the portfolio investment (equity market), the country recorded an outflow of $ 11.4 million in July this year compared with an inflow of $ 50.3 million in July 2016.
Out of this investment, the Chinese companies under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) invested an amount of $ 72.7 million in July 2017, while Malaysia invested $ 91.6 million and UAE invested $ 16.2 million in Pakistan.
Major investments the country received are from USA ($ 9.6m), Sweden ($ 5 m), Japan ($ 12.2 m), Italy ($ 4.6m), Hungary ($ 9.3 m), and France ($ 9.5 m) in different sectors, meanwhile Norway, Kuwait and Finland pulled back their investment from Pakistan during July 2017.
The country recorded inflows of the direct investment of $ 247.8 million compared with an outflow of $ 25.1 million in July this year.
In July 2017, the country received a major investment in the power sector of $ 56.7 million most of them from China in the development projects of CPEC and Oil and Gas Exploration that received $ 20 million, the SBP’s data said.
An analyst said, “The country’s total direct investment have started rising from May 2017, only because of Chinese investment.”
Pakistan has received an amount of $ 2.157 billion in the last fiscal year (2016-17) compared to $ 1.976 billion in 2015-16.
After touching the highest level of $ 24.6 billion, the FOREX reserves declined to $ 20.003 billion on last Thursday. The stock market had almost lost 10,000 points from its peak at 44,000 points after touching the highest level of 52,387 points in the first week on June this year.
The MSCI upgraded Pakistan’s stocks in emerging markets from June 1, 2017, but after coming into the emerging market KSE-100 index is continuously sliding, another analyst claimed.
During the fiscal year 2016-17, overseas Pakistani workers remitted $ 19,304 billion down by 3.1 per cent or $ 610 million, compared with $ 19,917 billion received during the same period in the preceding year.
During July 2017, the inflow of worker’s remittances amounted to $ 1.542 billion, which is 16.2 per cent less than June 2017 and 16 per cent more than July 2016.
