More significantly, FDI increased sharply in February as it amounted to $79.2 million. CREATIVE COMMONS
KARACHI:
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Pakistan rose 17.9% in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, standing at $606.3 million compared to the corresponding period of previous year, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday.
More significantly, FDI increased sharply in February as it amounted to $79.2 million. In contrast, there was an outflow of $14 million in the same month of the preceding fiscal year.
In the first half of 2013-14, FDI stood at $416.1 million, which was 26.8% lower than the amount invested in the corresponding six months of previous year.
Pakistan received FDI worth over $1.4 billion in 2012-13.
The oil and gas sector attracted the highest amount of FDI in the July-February period. It attracted a net investment of $296.2 million. However, it was 12.8% lower than the investment of $339.7 million it got in the corresponding period a year earlier.
Sectors of the economy that received major FDI inflows during the last eight months include financial business ($102.8 million), chemicals ($71.6 million), tobacco and cigarettes ($55.5 million), food ($75.1 million) and beverages ($23.7 million).
In contrast, a major dip in FDI was registered in the telecommunications sector, where the net outflow of investment was $131.4 million. Other sectors that recorded a considerable net outflow were petroleum refining ($11.6 million), electrical machinery ($11.3 million), trade ($8.5 million) and transport ($5.2 million).
As for foreign portfolio investment (FPI), which includes foreign public investment, Pakistan attracted $118.3 million during the July-February period, down 28.8% from $166.2 million in the comparable period of previous year.
Countries that brought significant amounts of FDI into Pakistan during the period under review include Switzerland ($178.3 million), United States ($161.9 million), Hong Kong ($144.9 million), United Kingdom ($76.2 million), Italy ($50.8 million), France ($47.6 million), Oman ($35.3 million) and Austria ($32.2 million).
Countries that took major investments out of Pakistan are Norway ($47 million), Qatar ($38.9 million), Saudi Arabia ($32.8 million) and Singapore ($31.1 million).
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15th, 2015.
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This is good and all, but Hong Kong is not a country. It is just a special administrative region of China.
18% improvement is not bad... a small step in the right direction...