Total foreign investment declines by 54.5% to $550.1m

KARACHI: Despite all efforts of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) government in last four month, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) dipped by 35.2 per cent to $880.7 million in last five months of the current fiscal year compared to $1.359 billion received in the same period last year.

Out of the total direct investment, the investment from China stood at $584 million in five-month of the current fiscal year, data released by the SBP said here on Monday. However, the dollar inflows from China were stood at $911 million in the same period last year.

The country’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) dipped by 36.2 per cent or $478.7 million in July-November 2018-19 and stood at $880.7 million, while country’s total investment stood at $550.1 million after a decline of 54.5 per cent compared to last year.

In November 2018, the country had received $280 million only in the head of direct investment compared to $239.5 million in the same month last year.

Total inflows of foreign direct investment of $1.229 billion were received in July-November period, while investors pulled back their $348.7 million, the data said.

The government has received 2nd tranche of $1 billion of financial support from Saudi Arabia, while the 3rd tranche would be received in January 2019, the SBP sources claimed.

After receiving $2 billion from the Saudi Arabia, the overall situation of SBP’s reserves is better, the analyst said adding that China has also assured for the support of Pakistan’s economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also negotiating with Pakistani government and hope it would approved $6 billion for the bailout package for Pakistan, he claimed.

Finance Minister Asad Umer has also claimed, “Pakistan is out of the financial payment crisis.”

Despite all the improvement in the economy, the stock market lost over 3000-4000 points in last couple of week and KSE-100 index went down to 38,500 points.”

The brokers had a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan on December 9 and discussed their problems with him. The brokers and the investors are still waiting for the decision of new government promised with them, the analyst claimed.

The market analysts further said that federal government has raised the gas charges and the regulatory duty on the import of 570 products to control the imports into the country, which will further hamper the country’s growth.

Foreign private investment of the country stood at $550 million down by 56.3 per cent during July-November compared to $1.259 billion in the same period last year.

During July-November 2018-19, the SBP has recorded outflows of an amount of $330.6 million in the head Portfolio investment (Equity Securities), down by 230.4 per cent compared to last year outflows of $100.1 million in same period last year.

During the period, the SBP has received an amount of $0.1 million in the head of Foreign Public Portfolio Investment (Debt Securities), increasing by 100.1 per cent during July-Nov this year which was at negative $49.6 million in the same period last year, the data said.

The Chinese companies under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) invested an amount of $584 million in July-Nov 2018-19, while United Kingdom invested $79 million and Switzerland $33.1 million in Pakistan.

Major investment the country received are from USA ($56 m), Singapore ($22.3 m), Italy ($19 m), and Japan ($32 million) in different sectors, meanwhile Norway, Kuwait and Netherland pulled back their investment from Pakistan during the period.