Repatriation of profit, dividend by foreign investors drop 21% in FY19

July 29, 2019 (MLN): Foreign investors repatriated $1.82 billion on account of profit and dividend during FY19. According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the repatriation of profit and dividend by foreign investors have witnessed a downward trend, depicting a negative growth of 21 percent as compared to FY18.

During the month of June FY19, the country paid $151.3 million as profits and dividend, compared with $436 million in the previous month, displaying a decline of 65 percent,  whereas,  repatriation of profits and dividend on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) during the month declined by 68 percent to $131 million,  mainly due to economic slowdown, currency depreciation, falling corporate earnings and increasing cost of doing business have made it harder for many foreign investors to repatriate more profits from Pakistan.

The detailed analysis shows that during FY19, repatriation on account of FDI and foreign portfolio investment (FPI) both displayed a declining trend, as they fell by 21 percent and 20 percent respectively. Foreign investors repatriated $1.58 billion return on FDI during FY19 compared to $2 billion in the previous fiscal year whereas, the repatriation of profit and dividend on portfolio investment stood at $247 million for the aforesaid period compared to $311.5 million in FY18.

The SBP data also revealed that during the month of June FY19, some key sectors such as food, transport, power, tourism and financial business, remitted lower profits on FDI to their parent companies abroad as compared to the previous month.

The food sector repatriated $7.8 million worth of profits, whereas it had repatriated a much higher profit of $91.2 million in May 2019.

Outflows of profits from the power sector recorded at $5.1 million, down by 80% from outflows of $26 million in previous month.

Profit outflows from the financial businesses stood at $15.3 million, compared with $44 million in May 2019.

Outflow of profits from telecommunications and transport amounted to $48.5 million and $1.6 million during the month of June 2019. While oil and gas exploration sector repatriated $38 million during the last month of FY19.

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