KARACHI: Pakistan has received an amount of $ 939.7 million in the head of foreign direct investment (FDI), up by 74.4 per cent or $ 401 million during first four months of the current fiscal year compared to $ 538.7 million in the same period last year. Out of the total $ 836.8 million investment, Chinese companies invested in $ 631.7 million in Pakistan during last four months.
In October 2017, the country has received $ 293 million as direct investment, while investors pulled back their investments worth $ 15.3 million in the same period, the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said here Wednesday.
Foreign private investment stood at $ 886.4 million up by 77.6 per cent during July-Oct compared to $ 499.1 million in the same period last year.
During October 2017, the SBP has recorded outflows of an amount of $ 49.6 million in the head of Foreign Public Portfolio Investment (Debt Securities), which further decreased by 104.3 per cent during July-Oct this year which was in plus at $ 1.141 billion in the same period last year, the data said.
In portfolio investment (Equity Market), the country recorded an outflow of $ 53.2 million in July-Oct this year compared with a negative $ 39.6 million investment in July-Oct 2016.
The Chinese companies under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) invested an amount of $ 631.7 million in July-Oct 2017, while Malaysia invested $ 107 million and UAE invested $ 24.4 million in Pakistan.
Major investment the country received are from USA ($ 26.6 million), United Kingdom ($ 14.6 million), Japan ($ 16.5 million), Italy ($ 14.2 million), Hungary ($ 28.1 million), and France ($ 38 million) in different sectors, meanwhile Norway, Kuwait and Finland pulled back their investment from Pakistan during July-Sept 2017.
The country recorded inflows of the direct investment of $ 1.065 billion compared with an outflow of $ 125.7 million in July-Oct this year.
In October 2017, the country received major investment in the power sector of $ 154.1 million, Oil and Gas Exploration that received $ 9.2 million, communication $ 64.9 million and $ 53.2 million in Construction Industry, the SBP’s data said.
The analyst said that there was a negative investment in the equity market because of the continuous sliding Pakistan Stock Market. The total direct investment has surged as the Chinese Companies are pouring their investment in projects during last three months. Otherwise, the foreign investment is about to nil, he added.
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 had declined to below $ 19.5 billion on last Thursday. The stock market had almost lost 12,000 points from its peak at 43,000 points after touching the highest level of 52,387 points in the first week on June this year.
