Profits of foreign investors increase by 300% in Pakistan

Islamabad: The profits of foreign investors in Pakistan increased by 300%. From July to November 2023, foreign investors made a total of 532 million dollars with an increase of 312%.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) stated in a report on Wednesday that foreign investors had made a profit of 129 million dollars during the same period last year. A year-on-year increase in profits of $403 million has been recorded.

The analysts said that it was possible for foreign investors to earn profits at such a high rate because last year, due to the severe financial crisis that hit the country, the SBP had taken measures to relax certain rules on foreign investment.

The concessions were provided in some cases due to severe reduction in foreign exchange reserves. Apart from this, the State Bank had also received a program (loan) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stabilize foreign exchange reserves.

According to the SBP spokesperson, an analysis of the data showed that the rate of return on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Indirect Foreign Investment (FPI) stood at 377 percent and 58 percent respectively.

Foreign investors remitted $49.1 million in profits in the first five months of the current financial year, compared to $103.3 million in the same period last year.

Similarly, the return on FPI from July to November was 40.1 million dollars as compared to 2.6 million dollars during the same period last year.