By Sandra Loyd
- The reserves are falling for fifth week at $ 22.28 billion; FDI falls for second month in February at $ 90.8 million
KARACHI, (TLTP): Foreign exchange reserves of the country has fallen for the fifth consecutive week to $ 22.28 billion, while foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to Pakistan fell by 17.5 percent in February at $ 90.8 million against the inflows of $ 110 million registered in January 2022.
According to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (PSB) on Thursday, the foreign exchange reserves held by the plant bank decreased 2.35 percent on on a weekly basis.
On March 11, the reserves in foreign exchange held by the SBP was recorded at $ 15,831.6 million, down $ 381 million in comparison with $ 16,212.2 million on 4th March. The power station bank gave no reason for the fall in reserves.
Total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP amounted to $ 22,283.4 million. The net reserves held by the banks amounted to $ 6,451.8 million.
The SBP said that FDI flows in Pakistan have declined for the second consecutive month in February 2022 at $ 90.8 million against the inflows of 110 million dollars in January 2022. The a year-on-year base, FDI fell by 33.7 percent compared to $ 137 million in February 2021.
Meanwhile, the country raised $ 1.26 billion in FDI in the July-February period of the current tax year how against $ 1.19 billion registered in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year showing a decline of 6.1 percent.
During the month of February 2022, abroad private the investment in the country was 83.8 million dollars, out of that, $ 90.8 million was attributed to direct investment while divestment of $ 6.9 million was allocated to equities, or a portion of portfolio investments.
Within direct investment, there has been an influx of $ 153.2 million and an outflow of $ 62.4 million during the month.
The sequential decline in FDI inflows were attributed to the significant decrease in investment from China such as net investment flows from China dropped by 55 percent MoM at $ 24.1 million from $ 53.7 million reported in January 2022. While inflows from Norway stood at $ 20 million and FDI from Switzerland was marginal drop of 3.7% to $ 12.3 million.
At the industry level, the financial business attracted the highest net IDE of $ 44.3 million during the month of February 2022, followed by the power sector with $ 22.8 million and oil and gas exploration with $ 16.7 million.
The Executive Committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). on On February 2, it approved Pakistan’s request for a $ 1 billion loan tranche. A meeting of the IMF Executive Committee took place to discuss and finalize Pakistan’s request for completion of the sixth Revision and release of a $ 1 billion tranche under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
Foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank rose to all-time highs of $ 20.15 billion after Pakistan received a general assignment of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) worth $ 2,751.8 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on August 24.
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