KARACHI: While the country is in dire need of dollar inflows, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) fell by 1.3 per cent during the first 11 months of 2017-18, State Bank reported on Wednesday.

The China-dominated FDI witnessed steep fall in May as it declined by $85 million to $238m. The political uncertainty could be one of the reasons for low foreign inflows.

However, China kept its domination in the overall FDI compared to all other countries investing in Pakistan.

Pakistan received $2.457 billion during the July-May period of the current fiscal year compared to $2.507bn in the same period of last year.

Out of this total inflow, China invested $1.509bn, which was over 61 per cent of the total FDI during this period.

Inflows from United Kingdom and Malaysia were important as the FDI from the two countries were $259m and $124m respectively.

So far the highest inflows were noted in power sector which got $760m followed by the construction sector as it received $632m. Other important recipients of FDI were financial business with $273m and oil and gas explorations with $177m.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2018