July-October period: foreign investors repatriate $540 million

Foreign investors repatriated $540 million on account of profit and dividend in first four months (July-October) of this fiscal year (FY17). Economist said although, the repatriated amount is lower than the same period of last fiscal year, however it is much higher than the overall Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) arrived during this fiscal year. They said the decline in repatriation has been attributed to petroleum refining, power, communication and oil & gas exploration sector.
"It is believed that, these sectors are investing in their expansion plans of which overall repatriation is in on decline," they added. According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the repatriation of profit and dividend by foreign investors posted a decline of 19 percent during July-October of fiscal year 2016-17. Foreign investors repatriated some $540.1 million on account of profit and dividend during first four months of this fiscal year against $667.6 million in the same period of last fiscal year (FY16), depicting a decline of $127.5 million.
During the period under review, major outflow of profit and dividend has been witnessed from FDI and cumulatively some 83 percent of the repatriated amount has been sent as returns on FDI. Repatriation of profit and dividend from FDI stood at $451.5 million during July-October FY17 compared to $532.7 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal year, showing a decline of 15 percent or $81.2 million. The repatriated amount on account of FDI is even much higher than FDI inflows, arrived during the period under review. The country fetched FDI amounting to $316.1 million in July-October of FY17 against the repatriated amount of $451 million as return on FDI.Repatriation of profit and dividend from portfolio investment is also moving down. It declined by 34 percent. Foreign investors repatriated an amount of $88.6 million in first four months of FY17 against $134.9 million in the corresponding period of FY16.
The detailed analysis revealed that repatriation from power sector fell sharply by 52 percent or $60.7 million to $56.3 million at the end of October 2016. Repatriation from oil and gas exploration sector declined from $76 million to $55.2 million. While, communication sector repatriated $12.7 million in July-October FY17 compared to $34.7 million in the same period of last fiscal year.
The highest repatriation of profit and dividend has been witnessed from petroleum refining as an amount of $80 million was sent during this period. Some $24 million was repatriated from food sector, $27.4 million from beverages sector, $43 million from chemical, 107.7 million from financial sector and some $39.3 million on account of transport equipment.
During October, foreign investors repatriated some $205 million including $60.90 million from FPI and an amount of $144.2 million on account of FDI. With an increase of 17 percent, foreign investors repatriated some $2 billion on account of profit and dividend during FY16 against $1.637 billion in FY15.