Foreign investors repatriated $532 million in profits and dividends from their investments in Pakistan during July-November of the current fiscal year (FY24), reported The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday.
This is a 312 percent increase from the $129 million repatriated in the same period of the previous fiscal year (FY23).
The SBP attributed the rise in repatriation to the easing of capital controls that were imposed last year to deal with the foreign exchange crisis. Pakistan also received a loan from the IMF to boost its foreign exchange reserves.
The data showed that the repatriation from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) increased by 377 percent and 58 percent, respectively. The FDI repatriation amounted to $491 million, while the FPI repatriation was $41 million.
The Petroleum Refining sector had the highest repatriation of $78 million, followed by the Food sector with $68.6 million and the Transport sector with $68.4 million.
In November alone, the repatriation was $47 million, of which $35.1 million was from FDI and $11.7 million was from FPI.
Analysts expect the repatriation trend to continue as the economy improves.
