Foreign investment falls by 20pc in 2MFY22
KARACHI: Foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped by 20 per cent in the first two months of FY22 reflecting no improvement except increased inflows from China.
The country received $203 million during July-August 2021-22 compared to $255m in the same period of last year.
Data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan on Friday showed that the country witnessed lesser outflow of dollars from portfolio investment during July-August over the same period last year. The portfolio outflow during FY22 was $14.7m while it was $76.3m in the two months of previous fiscal year, a fall of 80.7pc.
The FDI could not even reached $2.5bn in the last three years as it was $947m in FY19, $2.315bn in FY20 and $2.056bn in FY21, reflecting poor investment climate.
The biggest inflow of $53.9m was from China in July-August period against $40.8m in the corresponding period of FY21. China remains the only major investor in the last few years.
The inflow from United States during this period was $32.2m against $15.4m in the same period last year. The FDI from Singapore increased to $23.1m from $4.7m in 2MFY21.
The inflows from UK and UAE were $18m and $16.6m, respectively, showing slight improvement over the same period last year.
The net outflow of FDI to Norway and Netherlands were $11.6m and $5.5 million, respectively, against an inflow of $36.3m and $21.2 in 2MFY21.
The FDI fell by 29pc in the whole FY21 compared to the preceding year while the net portfolio investment of half a billion dollars in June helped the total private investment from further decline.
The total private investment during 2MFY22 was up by 5.5pc to $188.3m compared to $178.5m in the same period of last year.
During FY21 the country received a total FDI worth $1.847bn compared to $2.597bn in FY20, a decline of 28.9pc.
Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2021
