Pakistan’s FDI inflows drop by 2% to $1.29bn in 9MFY22

April 19, 2022 (MLN): Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into Pakistan fell by 2 percent year-on-year during July-March of FY22 to reach $1.29 billion, according to the data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan today.

The country had fetched FDI amounting to $1.31bn during July-March of FY21.

March’22 turned out to be a disappointing month for Pakistan as the country witnessed foreign direct disinvestment of $30.4 million against the inflows of $173.4mn recorded in the same month of the previous fiscal year.

Going by the details made available by the central bank, the country has seen negative private disinvestment that totaled $57.6mn in March’22 as opposed to inflows of $162.4mn reported in the same period last year.

Out of $57.6mn disinvestment, $30.4mn was attributed to direct disinvestments, whereas disinvestment of $27.2mn was accorded to equity securities i.e., a part of portfolio investments.

This significant foreign direct disinvestment was attributed to the net FDI outflows from Norway as it disinvested $71mn in March 2022. While outflows from China stood at $39.7mn in the said month under review.

Sector-wise, Communications observed the highest net outflows of $161mn during the month of March 2022. On the other hand, the Power sector attracted $77.8mn net FDI, followed by the Financial Business with $23.3mn.

Under the foreign public investment, $402.2mn worth of disinvestment was witnessed in debt securities during the month against the net inflows of $128.6mn in March 2021.

All in all, the country witnessed foreign disinvestments of $459.8mn during March 2022 when compared to net inflows of $291.1mn in the same month last fiscal year.

Copyright Mettis Link News