ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The net Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) reduced by 50.7 percent during the first 10 months of the fiscal year 2018-19 (July-April) over the corresponding period last year, as per the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
However, the net FDI during this period was 20 percent more than the first 10 months of the previous regime, the Minister Incharge of the Prime Minister’s Office told the Senate in a written reply to a question by Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Senator Mushtaq Ahmed.
The investment data for the last five years is given in the table below:
The minister told that the net FDI increased by 133.4 percent in 2015-16 with start of early harvest projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and this trend continued till 2017-18. In 2018-19 almost all projects having FDI component (Energy Projects) are now completed, resulting in a declining trend in FDI which was quite expected.
It is expected to go up again as the next phase of industrial cooperation progresses and the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) become operational.
