$2.2 billion FDI fetched in 10 months

Pakistan fetched Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) amounting to some $2.2 billion during the first 10 months of this fiscal year (FY18), supported by Chinese investment under the CPEC. China remained the top contributor to FDI and the country received massive investment from China for construction, energy and infrastructure projects under the CPEC. Chinese investment accounting for about 68 percent of the total FDI arrived during current fiscal year.
According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), FDI maintained uptrend and rose by some 2.4 percent during the first 10 months of this fiscal year on the back of rising FDI inflows from China on account of the CPEC. The country fetched some $2.238 billion FDI during July-April of FY18 compared to $2.185 billion in the same period of last fiscal year (FY17), depicting an increase of $53.1 million. During the period under review, FDI inflows were $2.803 billion against the outflow of $566 million.
FDI from China rose significantly during this fiscal year compared to last year. With 57 percent increase, FDI from China surged to $1.514 billion in the first 10 months of this fiscal year up from $962 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal year.
Significant inflows of FDI also arrived from UK, which invested $248 million during the first 10 months of this fiscal year. Malaysia is on the third position with $129 million FDI.
Economists said FDI inflows are still not sufficient enough to finance current account deficit, of which the federal government is compelled to borrow from international market and recently some one billion dollars were raised from a Chinese bank in April to build the depleting forex reserves. According to SBP, total foreign investment including FDI, portfolio investment and foreign public investment increased by 65 percent. Total foreign investment stood at $4.577 billion in July-April of FY18 compared to $2.779 billion in the corresponding period of last fiscal year, depicting an increase of $1.798 billion. Month-on-month basis, FDI fell by 32 percent to $172 million in April 2018 against $253 million in April 2017.