A large chunk of this YoY decline in FDI comes from China as most of CPEC-related power projects either been concluded or are nearing completion. As many of the CPEC projects are under or nearing completion, FDI inflows from China into the power sector have been slowing down.
The FDI inflows from China plunged by 27 percent to $825 million in first seven months of this fiscal year down from $1.142 billion in the same period of last fiscal year. However, despite slowdown in FDI, China continues to remain the top investor in Pakistan and still has 57 percent share in net FDI arrived this year. Similarly, with $127 million FDI, UK is the second top investor in Pakistan.
As for portfolio investment, net outflows accelerated during this fiscal year due to foreign selling from local bourses due to political uncertainty. The total foreign investment including FDI, portfolio investment and foreign public investment stood at $1.04 billion in July-Jan of FY19 compared to $4.138 billion in the corresponding period of last fiscal year, depicting a decline of $74 percent.