A mid the flurry of routine economic statistics coming out of Pakistan in November, one quickened the pulse of the country's bureaucrats and bankers - the $1.029 billion inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first quarter (July to September), a 213 percent increase on the same period the previous year. The FDI figure was the latest and boldest evidence of a complete turnaround in investor sentiment toward Pakistan. Six years ago, annual FDI numbers hovered around the $300 million mark. By the 2005-06 financial year, they had increased 10-fold, to $3.52 billion, and the latest numbers suggest that figure will be comfortably surpassed in 2006-07.
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