Foreign Direct Investment in Telecom Sector Declines by 38% in Q1 FY16-17

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) posted around 38 percent decline during the first quarter of current fiscal year (2016-17).

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) shows that FDI is continuously moving down and fell by 38 percent during July-Sep of fiscal year compared to same period of last fiscal year. Pakistan fetched FDI amounting to $249 million during the first quarter of fiscal year 2017 compared to $403 million in the corresponding period of fiscal year 2016, depicting a decrease $154 million. The country fetched $136.7 million in FDI during September as compared to $162.6 million in the same month a year earlier.

During the period under review, the country received foreign inflows amounting to $344.7 million against the outflows of $95.3 million on account of FDI. The inflows and outflows of FDI are some 48 percent and 64 percent lower, when compared with the same period of last fiscal year.

Telecom sector received $21 million as FDI in the first quarter of the current fiscal year as against $6.9 million in the corresponding period of FY16. Information Technology sector fetched $3.3 million Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in July-September 2016 compared to -0.2 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal year.

However the overall communications sector comprising telecommunication, information technology and postal & courier services) registered $24.2 million net FDI with $40.9 million inflow and $16.7 million outflow.

Telecommunication sector registered $37.6 million inflow, $16.6 million outflow and $21 million net FDI during the period under review.

Net FDI in software development remained at $1.5 million and in hardware development it measured at zero during July-September.