Foreign Direct Investment Falls By Over 45% This Year

Overall Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country posted over 45 percent decline in the current fiscal year (2016-17).

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) shows that FDI is continuously moving down and fell by 45.2 percent during July-November of fiscal year compared to same period of last fiscal year.

Pakistan fetched FDI amounting to $460 million in July-Nov of fiscal year 2017 compared to $840 million in the corresponding period of fiscal year 2016, depicting a decline of $380 million. During the period under review, FDI inflows stood at $706.5 million against outflows of $246.7 million.

Telecom sector received $47.7 million as FDI in the first five months of the current fiscal year as against $153.3 million in the corresponding period of fiscal year 2016.

Information Technology sector fetched $5.3 million FDI in July-November 2017 compared to -18.7 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal year.

However the overall communications sector comprising telecommunication, information technology and postal & courier services) registered -$10.3 million net FDI with $53 million inflow and $63.3 million outflow.

Telecommunication sector registered $47.7 million inflow, $63.1 million outflow and -$15.4 million net FDI during the period under review.

Net FDI in software development remained at $2.2 million and in hardware development it measured at 0.1 million during July-October.

The FDI inflows into Pakistan’s oil & gas exploration and production (E&P) and petrochemical sectors suffered as the fall in oil prices forced global energy giants to curtail their capital spending and pushed the industry into a consolidation mode. Net FDI in E&P sector stood at $62 million in first five months of this fiscal year compared to $121 million in the same period of last fiscal year, they added.

The second component of foreign investment in Pakistan, i.e. portfolio investment, also witnessed a downward trend; however the decline is less than previous year. Overall portfolio investment stood negative at $95 million in July-Nov of fiscal year 2017 compared to $192.4 million in the same period of fiscal year 2016.

Month-on-month basis, FDI stood at $143.7 million in Nov 2016 against $229 million investment in Nov 2015, showing a decline of $85.3 million. During last month, FDI inflows stood at $226.4 million against outflow of $82.7 million.