Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has declined by 17 percent during the first quarter of the current fiscal year ((July-September 2014-15) as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year. Sources said that Finance Ministry in a presentation on review of economic indictors told the last meeting of the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet that FDI has declined to $417.1 million during July-September 2014-15 from $501.4 million for the same period of 2013-14. The country wise data shows that FDI from Switzerland declined to $75.6 million in July-Sep 2014-15 from 78.0 million in July-Sep 2013-14.

The FDI from United States declined to $53.7 million in July-Sep 2014-15 from 92.6 million in July-Sep 2013-14 and inflows United Arab Emirates (UAE) decreased to $26.8 million from 47.8 million.

The FDI inflows from Italy dipped to $20.1 million during the first quarter of the current fiscal year from $32.3 million for the same period of last fiscal year and from France to $17.7 million from $17.8 million. The FDI from Norway dropped to $17.2 million from 20.7 million during the period under review.

The foreign direct inflows from Austria decline to $9.2 million during the first three months of the current fiscal year from $19.5 million for the same period of last fiscal year while from other heads it decreased to $64.2 million from $88 million.

The ECC was told that the FDI from Egypt witnessed a marginal increase to $7 million during the period under review from 3.8 million, from Kuwait it increased to $6.9 million from $2.4 million. The FDI inflows from China increased to $6.9 million from 6.7 million, United Kingdom (UK) to $55.7 million during July-September 2014-15 from 50.4 million for the same period of last fiscal year. The FDI from Hong Kong increased to $44.2 million from $34.4 million.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2014