First Half Of Fiscal-year Witness Inflows Of FDI Up To $ 1.34

The reports say that China remained the top investor while Norway notched the second position in making investment in Pakistan

KARACHI: (Urdu Point/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-Jan 17^th, 2020) The first half of the current fiscal year witnessed inflows of foreign direct investment which reached to $ 1.34 billion as compared to the last year, the reports said here on Friday.

The reports said that the investment mainly targeted telecommunication, power and electrical and machinery sectors while China and Norway emerged as the top investors. For July to December of 2019-20, Malta invested $111.1 m. Total foreign investment made in December 2019 was bottom-line outflow of $198.3 m. Beside it T-Bills and PIBs closed the total investment account in negative, although, the FDI increased by 52. 6 per cent to $ 487 m in the month and $ 684 m outflow in the debt securities –bonds.

During the first six months of FY 20, the net Foreign Director Investment in the telecommunication sector rose to $ 432 m as compared as a net outflow of $ 126.3 m in the corresponding period last year. When it comes to telecommunications, inflow of foreign direct investment rose up to 41.

6 per cent to $ 289.7 m compared to $ 204m. Over $ 153 m investment was made in coal-based power plants. Similarly, the foreign investments in the financial business fell to $ 162.1 m during July-December period compared to $ 202 .2 million in the same period last year.

According to data of State Bank of Pakistan, the foreign public investment in the government debt papers ie T-bills rose to $452.2m during the first six months of this fiscal year. Thus, the total foreign investment went up to $1.811bn from $377m in the same period last year.

The data showed that China made total investment including direct investment of $422.3 m despite that inflows from China was going not so high for last quarters after completion of early-harvest China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects. Norway notched the second position in making investment in Pakistan as invested $288.5m during the period under review. The tally includes licence renewal fee paid by the Norwegian telecom firm and injection of $70m capital in Telenor Microfinance Bank, they revealed.