By Karim Madad

ISLAMABAD, Aug 05 (INP-WealthPK): Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Pakistan reached $1.86 billion in the financial year 2021-22 with bulk of it coming from China at $531.6 million, a latest economic update for July 2022 said.

The monthly economic update and outlook for July 2022, released by the Economic Advisor’s Wing of the Ministry of Finance, said FDI in FY22 increased by 2.6% from $1.82 billion in FY21.

FDI from China in FY22 accounted for 28.5% of the total, and the United States with $249.6 million contributed 13.4%, Switzerland $146.2 million (7.8%), and UAE $143.9 million (7.7%), the report said.

It further said power sector attracted highest FDI of $737.6 million (39.5%), financial business $405.3 million (21.7%), oil and gas exploration $195.3 million (10.4%) and information technology $148 million (7.9%).

Meanwhile, foreign private portfolio investment registered a net outflow of $388 million during FY22.

Foreign public portfolio investment recorded a net inflow of $309.5 million.

The total foreign portfolio investment recorded an outflow of $79.0 million during FY22 against an inflow of $2761.9 million FY21, the report said.

The finance division report said in FY22, workers’ remittances increased by 6.1% to $31.2 billion compared to $29.4 billion last year.

Month-on-month, remittances increased by 18.4% in June 2022 to $2.76 billion from $2.33 billion in May.

Year-on-year, remittances increased by 1.7% to $2.76 billion in June 2022 compared to $2.71 billion in June 2021.

The share of remittances in FY22 from Saudi Arabia was 24.8% ($7.74 billion), UAE 18.7% ($5.84 billion), UK 14.4% ($4.48 billion), USA 9.9% ($3.081 billion), other GCC countries 11.6% ($3.62 billion), EU 10.8% ($3.36 billion), Malaysia 0.5% ($144 million), and other countries 9.3%.

Highlighting the foreign exchange reserves, the report said that Pakistan’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves stood at $14.4 billion on July 25, 2022, with the SBP’s reserves reaching $8.5 billion, while commercial banks’ reserves $5.8 billion.

Regarding the performance of KSE Index, the report added that the KSE-100 index closed at 41,541 points on June 30, 2022, while market capitalisation settled at Rs6,957 billion.

It further said rising global commodity prices, supply chain disruptions, monetary tightening and the Russia-Ukraine conflict dented the global economic recovery.

Talking to WealthPK, Iftikhar Ali Malik, President of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called for containing fiscal deficit through boosting exports, reducing non-development expenditures and encouraging investments in the country.

He was all praise for China for heavily investing in Pakistan. He stressed that Pakistan was an attractive investment destination with huge potential for investors, including foreign investors.

Iftikhar Ali Malik urged the government to facilitate investment by reducing the cost of doing business and extending other incentives.

Credits: Independent News Pakistan—Wealthpk