KARACHI: The country’s foreign direct investment (FDI) surged by 8.7 per cent in the first five months of 2015-16 on a year-on-year basis.
According to statistics released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Pakistan received FDI of $540.2 million in July-November, which is $43 million higher than the FDI received in the same five-month period of the preceding fiscal year. FDI from China amounted to $334.6 million in July-November, which has increased 117.7% from a year ago.
Despite being one of the principle foreign investors in Pakistan historically, the United States is now pulling out its investments at a massive level. US investors have pulled out $86.3 million from Pakistan in the first five months of 2015-16, although net inflows from the world’s largest economy amounted to $101.4 million in the same period of the last fiscal year.
Other major outflows of FDI were from Saudi Arabian (-$53.1 million), Egyptian (-$19.4 million) and Swedish (-$8.8 million) investors in July-November, SBP data shows. FDI clocked up at $157.3 million in November, up three and a half times from $34.6 million received in the same month of 2014.
The largest net outflow of FDI in July-November was recorded in petro chemicals (-$136.1 million) followed by metal products (-$24 million). China was followed by Hong Kong ($64.5 million), Italy ($51.5 million), Switzerland ($42 million) and the United Kingdom ($41.8 million) as the largest contributor to the FDI in Jul-November.
