Remittances on a record spree

Holidays and festivals adorn the contributions of the Pakistani diaspora, offering an extra treat to all those eyes set on the precious foreign exchange sent home by those living abroad. While all else like FDI and development assistance, appears choppy in recessionary waters, home remittances have remained resilient and significant.
Overseas Pakistanis represent roughly 3-4 percent of the total population of the country. Almost 45 percent of these reside in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and other GCC countries, and a closer look at the monthly data by SBP reveals that these countries contribute almost 60 percent to the total remittance receipts on average.
These are not one-time occurrences; the phenomenon of persistence in remittances is directly proportional to migration as well as linked to the fact that these receipts are sent by all the migrants over the years and not just new migrants.
The distribution of remittances by US and Europe also shows a similar pattern to the respective overseas Pakistani population data. During October 2012 alone, Saudi Arabia and the UAE region sent back 800 million dollars, 59 percent of the total home remittances for October 2012.
A total of 1.365 billion dollars in October is a valuable contribution, the highest ever number recorder in a month. On a year-on-year basis, this is a surge of a whopping 34 percent, thanks to the additional contributions during the religious festival of Eid.
On an aggregate basis, the growth has been tremendous during FY13: inflows during the first four months of FY13 grew by a healthy 15 percent YoY, and monthly averages improved from Rs1.078 billion in 4MFY12 to 1.241 billion dollars during 4MFY13.
The significance of the festivals and holiday season cannot be overlooked. Trends over the years suggest that dwellers abroad bring and send in more foreign exchange during summer holidays and religious celebrations, all falling during the first half of the fiscal year since at least the last two years.
Going forward, the remarkable pace and agility of home remittances is likely to continue in the coming months especially with the wedding season just around the corner.