Daily Times

KARACHI: Country’s foreign direct investment (FDI) has reduced by 53.2 percent to $112.6 million during July-August 2016-17 from $224.8 million as compared with last FY15, showing a decrease of $128.2 million during the period. State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released FDI figures on Tuesday, as the country has entered in red zone to the state of economy and its government’s policies that failed to attract foreign direct investment in the country.

Country’s new financial started with a negative note as the inflows shrank by 60.2 percent to $177.6 million from $446.2 as compared with the last fiscal data of same period (July-August 2017) showing a reduction of $268.6 million.

The outflows reduced by 68.4 percent to $65 million during July-August 17 from $205.4 million during July-August 16. The portfolio investment has registered an increase of 157.3 percent to $41.4 million during July-August from minus 72.3 percent registering a spike of $113.8 percent.

Foreign private investment also registered a decrease of 8.6 percent to $154 million during July-August FY17 from $168.5 million as compared with same period of last year.

Pakistan received an amount of $ 177.6 million as FDI from different countries. Of these $29.7 million FDI received from China as the single largest contributor followed by United States $26.5 million, UAE $24.4 million, United Kingdom $22.6 million, Norway $20 million and Italy $5.2 million respectively. Country’s top areas for foreign investors are communication sector received $35.3 million followed by power sector $31.9 million, financial business $31.1 million, oil and gas sector $14.2 million and pharmaceutical and OTC products received 10.1 million.