KARACHI: The outflow of dollars from equities, treasury bills (T-bills) and Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) crossed the one-billion mark in the first six months of the current fiscal year (6MFY22), data issue by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday showed.

Despite half a billion dollars inflows in equities and other securities, net outflow was $492 million during July-Dec FY22, the SBP data revealed. The inflows were $515m against outflows of $1007.4m. Inflows in equities during this period were $272.5m against a total outflow of $661m. T-bills attracted $151.4m while PIBs got $91.1m against an outflow of 268.7m and $77.5m, respectively.

The SBP has been making efforts to attract dollars through the domestic bonds. However, the papers could not attract investments as they did in the beginning of 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic made its way to Pakistan.

Both the equities and T-bills noted net outflows while the PIBs succeeded to hold $13.6m as net inflow during the period. Talking to Dawn, bankers said the recent increase in the interest rate, which saw a hike in return on both the government papers in double digits, could again attract foreign investments in coming months.

However, the bankers were not sure whether the worsening current account deficit of the economy would allow the investors to park their money in domestic bonds.

The SBP data showed that the highest inflows during 6MFY22 were from United States at $212.9m while the outflow was $472m. The inflows from USA were highest for equities at $132.2m while $80.7m for PIBs.

The inflows from the United Kingdom in equities were 28.8m, for T-bills $64.9m and 9.6m for PIBs. The total inflows from the UK were $103.4m compared to outflow of $247.9m in 6MFY22.

The inflows from United Arab Emirates were $92.7m against an outflow of $48.8m, leaving $44m as net inflow for the country during this period.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2022