10MFY14: FDI falls 12.9%, data reveals

Amounts to $750.9 million, April’s figures substantially low.


Our Correspondent May 15, 2014
The negative growth rate on a year-on-year basis is due to the substantial drop in FDI recorded in the last month. DESIGN: CREATIVE COMMON

KARACHI:


Pakistan received foreign direct investment (FDI) of $750.9 million in the first 10 months of 2013-14, which is 12.9% less than the amount that the country received in the corresponding 10-month period of the preceding fiscal year, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.


The negative growth rate on a year-on-year basis is due to the substantial drop in FDI recorded in the last month. FDI remained $81.1 million in April, which is 64.9% less than $231.3 million recorded in the same month of the preceding fiscal year.

FDI in the first half of the current fiscal year was $416.1 million, which was 26.8% lower than the amount the country received in the corresponding six months of the preceding fiscal 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-April period. It attracted a net foreign investment of $394 million. However, it was 15.6% lower than the investment of $467.1 million the sector received in the corresponding 10-month period in the preceding fiscal year.

Sectors of the economy that received major FDI during the last 10 months include financial businesses ($130.8 million), chemicals ($81.9 million), tobacco and cigarettes ($40.5 million), food ($82.3 million) and beverages ($23.4 million).

In contrast, a major dip in FDI was registered in the telecommunications sector, where the net outflow of investment remained $140.8 million during the period under review. Other sectors that witnessed a considerable net outflow of FDI in July-April were petroleum refining ($14.6 million), electrical machinery ($10.8 million), trade ($10.4 million) and transport ($6.5 million).

As for foreign portfolio investment (FPI), which includes foreign public investment, Pakistan attracted $2.2 billion during the July-April period, up 437.2% from $414.7 million in the comparable 10 months of the last fiscal year.

Countries that brought significant amounts of FDI into Pakistan during the period under review include Switzerland ($193.4 million), United States ($185.5 million), Hong Kong ($199 million), United Kingdom ($93.9 million), Italy ($56.9 million), France ($59.3 million), Austria ($57.4 million) and Oman ($35.4 million).

Countries that took out major investments out of Pakistan in the last 10 months are Norway ($32.9 million), Qatar ($48.7 million), Saudi Arabia ($38.2 million) and Singapore ($38.5 million).

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2014.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.

COMMENTS (2)

hamza khan | 9 years ago | Reply

@Hassan:

no doubt. its complete smoke and mirrors.

Hassan | 9 years ago | Reply

What happened to all the talk about Ishaq Dar's 'magic touch' and the rise in investors, confidence. It seems that there is little substance to all that media hype about economic revival. PML(N) media cell is definately working wonders

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ