Total foreign investment declines to $54.4m in July

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Total foreign investment further decreased to $54.4 million in the first month of current fiscal year compared to $85.5 million received in the same period last year.

According to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday, the overall foreign investment in the country is short by $35.1 million or 41 per cent compared to July 2014.

The country has received total investment of $75 million in July 2015, while it was stood only $18 million but the portfolio investment was above $69 million in July 2014. This year, the portfolio investment is in negative.

However, the SBP recorded outflows of $24.7 million in July 2015.

The central bank has received total inflows of direct investment of $179 million, while the outflows were remained around $104 million in last month.

In July 2015, the country did not receive any portfolio inflow in the equity sector, which was around $70 million in July 2014. The central bank recorded outflows in portfolio investment of $4.8 million in July last.

The country has received total foreign investment of $2.561 billion in the last fiscal year (2014-15) compared to $4.436 billion received in 2013-14. The investment was short by 42 percent in 2014-15.

In July 2015, the country received highest amount of $57.5 million from China, $15.3 million from UAE, $10.8 million from Italy and $9 million from Netherland.

Meanwhile the United States remained on the top, who withdrew an amount of $49.8 million, Saudi Arabia was on the second with outflows of $10.6 million and Philippines withdrew $4.2 million from Pakistan.

According to the analysts, the foreign are not making investment in the equity markets of Pakistan for last few months because of the law and order situation.

The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and other bourses in the country are performing record breaking and KSE-100 index had touched 35,800 mark.

The government had signed $46 billion memoranda of understanding with Chinese government to invest in energy and other different sectors, which will further improve the economy situation of the country.

The ministry of finance has also finalized the agreement with the international monetary fund (IMF) last week to get 8th installment under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement. The IMF will release $502 million in end of September under EFF arrangement.

However, the biggest change came in foreign exchange reserves, which shot up to over $19 billion, while it may cross $20 billion by the end of this year.

Pakistan’s exports slipped below $1.6 billion in July 2015 – as much as 19.6% or $325 million less than the receipts in the comparative period of last year, according to figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.