KARACHI: The long-term Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) continue to attract foreign investors who invested $10 million during the month of May.

However, investments in PIBs have dropped in May compared to March when the country received over $100m as investment which pushed up the total to $240.7m. This was termed as a ‘turning point’ by the financial sector since their expectations were high.

However, the month of April proved extremely disappointing as the inflows were not more than $5m. The government and the State Bank have been making efforts to attract foreign investments which had reached about $3.5bn before the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. Most of the investments vanished within a couple of months as the pandemic wreaked havoc across the world.

The State Bank’s latest data showed that the total inflow in PIBs reached at $255.6m during the current fiscal year (FY21).

In May, the entire investment in PIBs came from the United Kingdom. The total inflow during this fiscal year was $20m from the same country.

The highest investor was United States as its total investment in PIBs during FY21 was $115m. Second highest investment was from Luxemburg amounting to $96.7m. A significant inflow of $21.4m was received from the Philippines.

Pakistan succeeded in attracting over $3 billion for the Wapda green bonds this week in the international market, reflecting an improved external front of the economy.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2021