Pakistan’s total investment dips by 78.4% to $1.042bn in July-Jan 2018

KARACHI: The country’s total Foreign Investment dipped by 78.4 per cent to $1.042 billion in last seven months of the current fiscal year compared to $4.138 billion received last year.

The country’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) declined by 17.6 per cent or $309 million in July-Jan 2018-19 and stood at $1.451 billion.

In January 2019, the country has received $132.2 million only in the head of direct investment compared to $128.9 million in the same month last year.

Total inflows of foreign direct investment of $2.028 billion were received in July-January period, while investors pulled back their $577.4 million, the SBP data said.

The government has received $3 billion of financial support from Saudi Arabia, while the crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman have signed $20 billion investment deal with Pakistan.

After receiving $3 billion from the Saudi Arabia, the overall situation of SBP’s reserves is little better, the analyst said adding that China has also assured for the support of Pakistan’s economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also negotiating with Pakistani government and hope it would approved $6 billion of bailout package for Pakistan in April this year, he claimed.

Finance Minister Asad Umer has also claimed, “Pakistan is out of the financial payment crisis.”

Foreign private investment of the country stood at $1.042 billion down by 38.2 per cent during July-Jan compared to $1.687 billion in the same period last year.

During July-Jan 2018-19, the SBP has recorded outflows of an amount of $408.9 million in the head Portfolio investment (Equity Securities), down by 454 per cent compared to last year outflows of $73.8 million in same period last year.

During the period, the SBP has received an amount of $0.1 million in the head of Foreign Public Portfolio Investment (Debt Securities), increasing by 100.1 per cent during July-Jan this year, the data said.