October 10, 2001	Wednesday	Rajab 22, 1422

KARACHI, Oct 9: A $31 million direct foreign investment coming in from the United States raised the total amount of FDI to $66.2 million in the first two months of this fiscal year.

Official statistics show that $31 million worth of FDI came in during July-August this year against a negative inflow of $12.3 million in a year-ago period.

The specific areas of US investment coming in during the first two months of this fiscal year could not be ascertained. But top bankers said what attracted this investment was an improved image of Pakistan in the eyes of the US investors. Before the May 1998 nuclear explosions Pakistan had been receiving a large amount of FDI from the US that started declining afterwards. In fiscal 1998 -99 Pakistan received about $215 million FDI from the US that fell to $170 million in 1999-00 and then to $93 million in 2000- 01.

Whereas the FDI coming in from the US rose from minus $12.3 billion in July-August 2000 to $31 million in July-August 2001 the inflow of FDI from the UK fell from $8.3 million to $3.8 million. But foreign direct investment from Germany rose from a negligible $600,000 in July-August 2000 to $7.3 million in July- August 2001. Similarly FDI from Japan and the Netherlands also increased from $2.7 million and $300,000 to $6 million and $5.5 million respectively. But the FDI from Saudi Arabia fell from $2.2 million in July-August 2000 to only $800,000 in July-August 2001.

Senior bankers and analysts say foreign direct investment is set to fall in coming months in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington and the US retaliatory attacks on Afghanistan.