ISLAMABAD: Foreign investment declined by 26.6 percent during three months time from July-September due to the protest and sit-ins by the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehrik.
Similarly, Pakistani exports during same period declined by 6.273 percent while imports increase by 10.598 percent. Statistics collected by the Ministry of Finance and available with this scribe, revealed here on Monday that the current situation due to unrest had not only impacted the current pace of economic development but badly damaged image of the country and the declining Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) put more pressure on external accounts particularly in the wake of widening trade gap due to falling exports.
“It is estimated that due to depreciation of Pak Rupee the additional cost of import bill is Rs 16 billion during the sixty days of sit-in,” the data further revealed as the inflation which had been contained below 8 percent during July-August FY 2014, likely to come under pressure on account of supply disruption of commodities due to sit-in and rallies. Similarly, due to political crisis, Pak Rupee was depreciated from RS 98.9 per US dollar on August 08, 2014 to Rs 102.9 per dollar on September 15, 2014 resulting in an increase in external pubic debt by Rs 210 billion.
Moreover, the foreign exchange reserves targeted at $15 billion by end September had also been suffered on account of delay in launching Sukuk Bond and divestment in Oil & Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDCL) shares, this in term, led to delay in finalization of fourth review of Extended Funds Facility (EFF) under International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme and release of trench of $ 550 million to Pakistan. The data disclosed that the government had to release a huge amount of Rs 357.4 million to Ministry of Interior as supplementary grant to tackle sit-in related security expenditures and this additional spending would have negative impacts on budget deficit.
