Dollar Shortage Traps Multinationals’ Profits Inside Pakistan

  • Unilever, Nestle among the companies whose profits are stuck
  • Executives looking for workarounds to move money from Pakistan
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Multinational companies face a problem in Pakistan: They can’t send profits back home from a country that’s running low on dollars.

Between $1 billion and $2 billion in earnings from firms including Nestlé SA, Unilever Plc and Philip Morris have been stuck in Pakistan’s banks for almost 18 months, according to a Karachi-based chamber of commerce for multinationals. Central bank data showed that repatriation of profits and dividends fell by 88% to $331 million in the fiscal year that ended in June.