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