KARACHI – Inflow of Portfolio Investment has compensated for a decline in the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment to Pakistan during the first nine months of FY11.
The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) underwent a 28 percent decline and stood at $1.08 billion in the aforementioned period of FY11 compared to $1.50 billion received in the same period of FY10.
However, Portfolio Investment (PI) recorded an inflow of $235 million from July-March FY11 compared with an outflow of $182 million in the corresponding period of FY10.
The aggregated inflow of foreign investment, during July-March, was $1.31 billion in this fiscal as against $1.32 billion in the last fiscal.
Out of 35 major sectors, 12 have recorded growth in the inflow of foreign investment while the remaining sectors have reported an outflow in nine months of the current financial year.
Foreign investment to the thermal power sector increased by 524 percent, reaching $96.2 million in July-March FY11, compared to a nominal $15.4 million received in the same period of last fiscal.
Foreign investment to financial business augmented by 5.8 percent in this fiscal and reached $125.6 million compared to $118 million in the same period of last fiscal.
However, foreign investment to the oil and gas exploration sector dwindled by 24 percent and declined to $396 million, compared to $520 million in the nine months of FY10.
Cement, beverages, ceramics, basic metals, software development, coal, cosmetics, rubber/rubber products, sugar and textile sectors reported improvement in the inflow of foreign investment.
However, food, petrochemicals, fertilisers, electronics, transport, construction, trade, telecommunication, IT services and personal services exhibited a decline in the inflow of foreign investment from July-March period of FY11.
War on terror, targeted killings, corruption and poor governance are cited as reasons for a slump in foreign investment.
