KARACHI: Pakistan fetched Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) amounting to $90 million in the first month of this fiscal year (FY22).
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Tuesday reported that FDI continued negative growth in July 2021 and fell by 31 percent. Pakistan attracted FDI worth $90 million in July 2021 compared to $129 million in July 2020, depicting a decline of $39 million. During the period under review, FDI inflows stood at $176.3 million as against the outflow of $86.4 million.
The detailed analysis revealed that FDI inflow from China posted a massive decline, of which overall FDI posted negative growth. During the last few years, China has made huge investments in Pakistan under CPEC related projects.
As most of the power and energy related projects have been completed, Chinese investment in Pakistan is gradually declining. According to SBP statistics, Chinese direct investment in Pakistan dropped by 85 percent to $ 6.6 million in July 2021 down from $ 44.1 million July 2020.
Most of the inflows of foreign investment were arrived from three countries including Singapore, United State and Hong Kong. These three countries contributed some 47 percent share in the total FDI arrived during the first month of the current fiscal year.
Singapore's foreign direct investment in Pakistan surged to $16.4 million in the first month of this fiscal year relative to $2 million in the same period of the last fiscal year. US and Hong Kong invested some $15 million and $12.3 million respectively during July 2021.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021