KARACHI: The repatriation of profit and dividend by foreign investors posted a healthy growth of 459 percent during the first two months of this fiscal year (FY25).
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data, foreign companies repatriated $ 274.7 million on account of profit and dividend during July-Aug of FY25 compared to $49.2 million in the same period of last fiscal year (FY24), depicting an increase of $225.5 million.
Analysts said after the removal of restrictions on the outflow of the foreign exchange, a massive surge has been witnessed in the repatriation of profit and dividend for the past few months. Previously, the federal government imposed some restrictions on outflow of foreign exchange to maintain the reserves at a reasonable level.
July profit repatriation significantly rises to $139.13m YoY
Most of the amount was repatriated on account of return on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). With an increase of $224 million or 509 percent, an amount of $268 million was repatriated as return on FDI in the first two months of this fiscal year against $44 million in the same month last year.
In addition, repatriation of profit and dividend from portfolio investment rose by $6.6 million in July-Aug of 2024 as compared to $5.3 million in the same period of last year 2023, showing an increase of $1.3 million.
Month-on-month basis, an amount of $ 135.6 million was repatriated in August 2024, of which $134.2 million was sent abroad on account of return on FDI, while $1.4 million as return on FPI.
The highest repatriation witnessed from financial business amounted to $59.6 million followed by tobacco and cigarettes $43 million, transport worth $36 million, food $35 million and power sector $32 million.
Meanwhile, the SBP on Thursday reported that the country’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves mounted up by $ 46 million to stood at $ 14.873 billion as of Sep 20, 2024 up from $ 14.826 billion as on Sep 13, 2024. During the week under review, the SBP’s reserves increased by $ 24 million to $ 9.534 billion.
In addition, net foreign reserves held by commercial banks reached $ 5.34 billion, up by $22.6 million in a week.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024