The country attracted some $622 million Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), up by 4 percent, during the first nine months of the current fiscal year compared to same period of last fiscal year. For the first time during the current fiscal year, the FDI is witnessing some growth as since July 2012 it was on decline mainly due to domestic and international issues.
"Although, FDI has posted some growth during the July-March period, however the inflows are still not much attractive," said Ali Sayam an economist. He said that globally economies are on passage of recovery and investor confidence has improved, resulting in new investment in different sectors. Last year, the country witnessed five years ever-lowest investment and now some increase in FDI flows has converted its decline in growth, he added.
The State Bank of Pakistan on Wednesday revealed that FDI has registered a growth of 4 percent during first nine months of FY13 compared to same period of last fiscal year. FDI stood at $622 million during July-March of FY13 against $599 million in the same period of last fiscal year, depicting an increase of $23 million. The current increase in overall FDI has been attributed to the investment in March 2013, which stood at $117.5 million compared to $40 million in March 2012.
Since July 2013, FDI was continually on decline plunging by 10 percent during the first eight months of FY13 mainly due to political uncertainty, energy crisis and poor law and order in the country. During the period under review, FDI inflows stood at $1.591 billion against outflows of $969 million, resulting in direct investment that stood at $622 million.
The second component of foreign private investment, ie, portfolio investment has also registered a positive trend. The portfolio investment has registered an increase of 339 percent or $282 million to $199 million during July-March of FY13 against an outflow of $83.1 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal year. Overall foreign private investment in Pakistan including FDI and portfolio investment surged to $820.7 million in July-March of FY13 compared to $515.5 million in corresponding period of last fiscal year, depicting an increase of 59.2 percent or $305 million.