Pakistan receives record $4.1bn in remittances in March, says SBP governor

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmad disclosed on Monday that Pakistan received a record-high $4.1 billion in workers’ remittances in March 2025.

Ahmad said the central bank revised its projection for the cumulative receipt of the remittances to $38 billion for the full year of FY25 from the previous estimate of $36 billion.

The inflow of overseas workers’ remittances into Pakistan stood at $4.1 billion in March 2025, crossing the $4-billion mark for the first time, the SBP date also confirmed later on Monday.

Remittances increased by 37% year over year, compared to $2.95 billion recorded in the same month last year. On a monthly basis, remittances were up 30%, compared to $3.12 billion in February.

SBP governor was speaking at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday to begin observing financial literacy week in the country.

Given the strong level of remittances, Ahmad was optimistic that the current account would remain in surplus throughout this fiscal year. “There will be a substantial surplus, and this is the best performance on the external account during the last two decades.”

The central bank chief also revised up projection for foreign exchange reserves (held by SBP) to $14 billion by the end of June 2025. Earlier, the bank had estimated FX reserves at $13 billion by the end of June.

Forex reserves up $173m to $15.75bn

He anticipated the growth in the SBP reserves despite a drop of $2 billion in FX over the past couple of months due to debt repayments to $10.6 billion at present.

He projected Pakistan would receive $4-5 billion from external resources by end of June. The receipts would be including from global financial institutions.

He said Pakistan’s economic activities have improved with imports going up to $5.7 billion a month.

“So those who are thinking that there are restrictions on imports or economic activity is not picking up, I think they should look at the data,” he said.

Ahmad projected economic growth at 3% for FY25.

“It would have grown to 4.2% in the year if agricultural output had remained robust at the previous year’s level of 8%,” he said.

He, however, said inflation reading would start increasing from the current month following a six-decade low of 0.7% achieved in March 2025.