KARACHI: Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows declined by 46 percent in the first four months of the current fiscal year (July-October), said a report of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Inflows from China clocked in at $335 million, which was 56 percent of the total FDI during the period under review. However, the Chinese investments also plunged more than half when compared with $694.3 million inflows in the corresponding period last year.
In addition to that, inflows from other countries have also been declining mainly due to the increasing Chinese influence in Pakistani economy. Significant inflows were recorded at $64.5 million from UK, $45 million from USA, $43.9 million from Korea and $36.3 million from Switzerland during the period under review.
Month-on-month, inflows in October were visibly poor dropping to just $161 million compared $345.6 million in the same month last year; a fall of 53.4 percent.
The SBP data revealed a 15 percent jump in remittances from overseas Pakistanis and the trade deficit has also reduced; however, despite these improvements, increasing oil prices in the international market could jeopardize the government’s effort to fix the ailing economy.
The outflow of portfolio investment was 269 million compared to outflow of 57 million in the same period of last year. The large outflow led to overall decline in the foreign private investment during the four months of this fiscal by 68 percent to $1.062 billion.