July-December: Pakistan receives FDI of $529m

Records year-on-year increase of $84 million in six months.

KARACHI: Pakistan received foreign direct investment (FDI) of $529.1 million in July-December, which is 18.8% higher than the FDI received during the same six-month period of the preceding fiscal year.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), FDI increased by $84 million year-on-year in July-December, as it amounted to $445.1 million in the first six months of 2013-14.

FDI in December was only $106.3 million as opposed to the net flows of only $20.6 million in the preceding month.



FDI in 2013-14 clocked up at $1.63 billion after increasing by 11.99% on an annual basis.

There was a net inflow of FDI amounting to $113.9 million from the telecommunications sector in July-December. In contrast, the same sector had registered a net outflow of $187.6 million of FDI during the same period of the last fiscal year. FDI in the telecommunications sector in December amounted to negative $33.5 million.

The largest increase in FDI in July-December was in the category of oil and gas exploration, which attracted $158.6 million. However, it was 31.1% less than the foreign investment received during the same months of the preceding fiscal year when it totalled $230.4 million.

As for foreign portfolio investment (FPI), which includes foreign public investment, Pakistan attracted $1.1 billion during July-December, which is 14.5 times higher than the FPI worth $77.6 million received in the comparable months of 2013-14.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th,  2015.

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