Foreign investors have successfully earned over $1 billion as profits and dividends on their investments in Pakistan during the first seven months.
Foreign investors are usually hesitant in investing in Pakistan, but they always succeed in getting reasonable profit on their investments. According to the report, issued by the State Bank of Pakistan on Friday, the foreign investors earned $1.013 billion of profit during the first seven months of the ongoing fiscal year.
The profit, earned by the foreign investors during this period, last year was almost the same as has been earned this year which shows the investment conditions in Pakistan have been encouraging for Direct Foreign Investment (DFI) even at the existence of Covid-19 and there seems no big or remarkable hurdle on the way of business in the country.
Read more: Outflow of profits, dividends on foreign investment falls 16.5% in July-October
The report shows that the payments on Foreign Direct Investments were $908 million during the period from July to January this year as compared to $961 million in the same period, last year. The profit on portfolio invest6ment was $105.5 million in this fiscal year, during the first seven months as compared to $63.9 million during the same period in the fiscal year 2020-21. The profit, earned by the foreign investors in the financial sector touched the figure of $167.8 million during the period, under review as compared to $136.4 million during this period, last year.
It shows that the financial institutions (banks) had big potential for foreign investment. In the fiscal year 2020-21, the performance of banking sectors with reference to foreign investment was equally good. The profit outflow from the power sector was $30.5 million during the first seven months of the previous fiscal year but it touched the figure of $98.6 million during these months in the current financial year, showing almost three times higher than the profit which was earned last year. The main reason for this big profit was the big rise in the electricity rates in the country.
The profit outflow from the communication sector was $119.5 million in the seven months of the previous fiscal year which came down this year during the same period to $106 million. During the period under review in the last fiscal year, the profit outflow from the food sector was $220.9 million which too, came down to $107.7 million during the same period this year.
The profit outflow from food packaging was $40 million during the first seven months in the ongoing fiscal year as compared to zero outflows during this period, last year. The profit outflow from Chemical, Tobacco/ Cigarettes came down to $62 million and $60 million this year as compared to $93 million and $84 million in the previous financial year respectively during the first seven months of the fiscal year 2020-21.
