According to the State Bank of Pakistan’s reports on Wednesday, China inflows have given a major 39% boost in the FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) of Pakistan as it was mostly due to the 130 % higher China inflows that brought up the graph.
A net FDI of $1.281 billion for the fiscal year of 2016 has been achieved to give a 38.8% increase in comparison to last year’s $923 billion while details show that the Chinese investment has risen by $594 million through mostly the CPEC as a 130% increase in comparison to 2015’s $257 million.
The second highest FDI was received from Norway as the amount came up to $172.3 million while UAE, Italy, and Hong Kong crossed the $100 million mark by $164 million, 103.5 million and $130.9 million respectively after KSA reached highest disinvestment of $102 million followed by US which was $208 million last year but was only $65 million this year.
Apart from China the FDI fell in comparison to last year as Pakistan has failed to attract FDI despite better law and order and economic situation. Last year’s total foreign investment of $1.84 billion also came down by 47.8% to be at $961 million while the net outflow was $319.7 million.
It was the power sector that attracted most FDI (double than previous) from $219 million to $566.6 million this year while the oil and gas did not perform despite being the second for such attraction as it fell from $299 million to just $261 this year. However, telecommunication on the other hand improved from $65.7 million to $210 million this year while Information Technology has disinvestment of $14.7 in comparison to last year’s $20 million.
The most declining area was the finance area which attracted a meager $28 million business in comparison to last year’s $256 million as the banks attraction for investors in the Middle East has been lost.
