FDI surged by 45 percent: Business Recorder

RIZWAN BHATTI

KARACHI (January 16 2009): The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has witnessed a raise of some 45 percent during December despite the looming clouds of war between Pakistan and India. The central bank on Thursday revealed that FDI has also crossed the mark of 2 billion dollars during December 2008 with a highest investment of 724 million dollars in a single month during the current fiscal year 2008-09.

"The surged in the FDI is a positive indication and reflected that confidence of foreign investors on Pakistan economy is still retained despite the tensions on Eastern boarders after Mombai attacks," economists said. They said that increasing FDI reflects that country's economic fundamentals are still strong despite several internal and external shocks and have ability to attract foreign investors.

Other economic indicators like foreign reserves and exports are also improving and would attract more investment in the future, they said. "With the current trend we are expecting that country's FDI would be around four billion dollars by the end of current fiscal year 2009", they added.With an increase of some 260.95 million dollars, FDI has reached 2.2327 billion dollars during the first half of current fiscal year 2008-09 (July-December), as compared to 2.0663 billion dollars during the same period of last fiscal year 2008.

Month-on-month basis the country has witnessed highest FDI in December as compared to other first five months of the current fiscal year, as foreign investors have invested some 724.28 million dollars in December 2008.

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