Pakistan’s FDI inflow slips by 17.5% MoM in February

March 17, 2022 (MLN): Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to Pakistan fell for the second consecutive month in February 2022 as it dropped by 17.5% MoM to $90.8 million against the inflows of $110mn recorded in January 2022, the central bank data showed on Thursday.

On year on year, FDI fell by 33.7% when compared to $137mn in February 2021.

Meanwhile, the country fetched FDI amounting to $1.26 billion during July-Feb of FY22 as against $1.19bn recorded in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year (FY21), showing a decline of 6.1%.

During the month of February 2022, the foreign private investment into the country amounted to $83.8mn, out of which, $90.8mn was attributed to direct investments, whereas disinvestment of $6.9mn was attributed to equity securities i.e., a part of portfolio investments.

Within the Direct Investments, there was an inflow of $153.2mn and an outflow of $62.4mn during the month.

The sequential decline in the FDI inflows was attributed to the significantly decreased investments from China as net investment inflows from China plunged by 55% MoM to $24.1mn from $53.7mn reported in January 2022. While inflows from Norway stood at $20mn FDI from Switzerland observed a marginal drop of 3.7% to $12.3mn.

Sector-wise, the financial business attracted the highest net FDI of $44.3mn during the month of February 2022, followed by the power sector with $22.8mn and oil & gas explorations with $16.7mn.

Under the foreign public investment, $53.5mn worth of disinvestment was witnessed in debt securities during the month against the net inflows of $1.06bn in January 2022. While in the same month of the last fiscal year, debt securities saw net inflows of $21.3mn.

All in all, the country witnessed foreign investments of $30.4mn during February 2022 when compared to net inflows of $1.17bn in January 2022 and $140.2mn in the same period last year.

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