KARACHI: The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) decreased by 5 percent during the first 11 months of this fiscal year.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) revealed Friday that foreign investors invested some $1.57 billion on account of FDI in Pakistan during July-May of FY22 against $1.679 billion in the same period of previous fiscal year (FY21), depicting a decline of $82.4 million. During the period under review, overall FDI inflows stood at $2.329 billion against $732.4million outflow.
Month-on-month basis, FDI declined by 36 percent or $71 million to $122.5 during May 2022 against $193.4 during May 2021. A massive fall in Chinese investment has largely contributed to this decline. The detailed analysis revealed that Chinese investment in Pakistan reduced almost 48 percent or $346 million during this fiscal year. China invested $373 million as FDI during July-May of FY compared to $719 million in corresponding period of last fiscal year. However, despite lower investment, China remained the largest investor with 23 percent share in overall FDI.
With $241 million direct investment the United States ranked second during the first eleven months of FY22 as against $122.4 million in the same period of last fiscal year. Investors from Hong Kong invested $137 million, Switzerland worth $132 million, UAE $131 million and the Netherlands amounted to $71.5 million during the period under review.
During the period under review, a major investment was poured into the Power sector amounted to $567 million followed by the Financial Business Sector worth $373 million and Oil and Gas Exploration $188 million. The portfolio investment also witnessed a downward trend with an outflow of $377.6 million during July-May of FY22. While, foreign public investment rose to $367 million during the period under review.
According to the SBP, total foreign investment in Pakistan, comprising foreign direct investment, portfolio investment and foreign public investment fell by 59 percent to $1.586 billion in July-May of FY22 compared to some $3.851 billion in the same period of FY21.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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