On Friday, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) divulged foreign direct investment (FDI) exhibited an extraordinary growth of 72.5 per cent in the first 11 months of the current financial year.
The foreign direct investment in Pakistan drew $1.318 billion from oil and gas explorations, food and financial sectors from July 2012 to May 2013 after a down period of two years.
FDI stood at $465.3 million against $106.2 million during may last financial year.
It is believed that consumer goods company Uniliver’s pronouncement to keep out of list from the stock exchange after a buyback of all the shares listed at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) is one of the key causes behind the rise in FDI inflows from July to -May 2013. The analysts said that the experts view that the FDI inflows are likely to grow further in the ensuing months if the government accomplish something in solving the energy crisis problem, particularly the clearance of the circular debt problem within a period of 60 days.
Foreign investors expect the PML-N government will encourage pro-business policies to improve the economic basis and investing in Pakistan.
FDI inflows stood at $2.464 billion against the outflows of $1.145 billion, during the period under review, the State Bank reported.
Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) witnessed a phenomenal growth of 508.5 per cent in Portfolio investment in the period under review. Additionally, portfolio investment was at $97.4 million from July-May 2012-13 against the outlays of $23.8 million in the same period of the last financial year.
Experts opined that most of the foreign companies are interested to set up their businesses in Pakistan. Besides, there is significant interest by top global fund managers and individual investors to find opportunities to invest in Pakistani stock exchange.
However, Pakistan witnessed a notable fall in foreign direct investment in the last five years with inflows depleting from $5.4 billion in 2007-08 to $760.7 million in 2011-12.