Foreign investment jumps 78pc on telecom inflows.

Byline: Shahid Iqbal

KARACHI -- Foreign direct investment (FDI) in to the country jumped by 78 per cent in the first five months of current fiscal year mainly on account of large inflows in the telecommunication sector.

The massive jump in the FDI comes after one-off payments were made by the telecom companies Telenor, Warid and Zong for licence renewal during the first five months of current fiscal year.

Latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed the country received $850 million in FDI during July-November period against $477.3m in the same period last fiscal year.

The data further revealed that net inflows of $19.5m in the portfolio investment account, during the first five months of current fiscal year compared to an outflow of over $330m in the corresponding period last year, helped bolster the overall tally of foreign investment.

The FDI inflows in November also increased to $285.4m compared to $200m in the same month last year, largely on account of a $70mn capital injection made by Telenor into its bank.

According to the SBP report, private foreign investment jumped by 493pc to $869.7m during the period under review compared to $146.7m in the same period last fiscal year.

The data showed that foreign public investment investment in government debt papers ie T-bills rose to $1.137 billion which pushed the overall investment in the country to $2.0bn. Compared to that, public investment during the same period last fiscal year was almost zero.

Despite being largest investor in the country, China was second to Norway during the period under review as investments from Beijing clocked in at $141.9m compared to $94m in the same period last fiscal...