Foreign investment in T-bills and PIBs surpasses $1.4 bln

December 30, 2019 (MLN): The Net Foreign Investment in Pakistan’s debt securities i.e. Treasury bills (T-Bills) and Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) during July 2019 till December 26, 2019 recorded at USD 1.438 billion, revealed State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)’s latest data.

In the month of November 2019, foreign investors invested net amount of USD 713.3 million in these debt securities. The higher interest rates coupled with the stability in PKR against dollar encouraged foreigners to invest more in Pakistan’s debt securities.

This resumption of foreigner’s participation in the investment in debt securities from July 2019 has also helped in strengthening country’s foreign reserves, as during June 2017 to June 2019, their participation of investment in T-bills and PIBs were zero.

As per the data, most of the investment in the debt instruments came from two leading advanced countries – the US and the UK. US accounted for USD 673.3 million while UK contributed USD 724.2 million.

Investors from the Luxembourg, Ireland and the UAE parked USD 34.9 million, USD 10.3 million and USD 6.89 million respectively, in T-bills during the period mentioned above.

With regards to equity investment, inflows in the period July to December 26, 2019, were USD 499.3 million while outflows stood at USD 524 million, showing that foreigners divested net amount of USD 24.7 million from Pakistan’s capital market.

The total net inflows in the three categories of Equities, T-bills and PIBs were USD 1.413 billion during the period under review.

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