Worker's remittances surge 24.2pc in February

ISLAMABAD: The workers’ remittances dispatched by the overseas Pakistanis surged by 24.2 percent to 2.26 billion in February 2021 against same month of last year when the remittances inflows were recorded at $1.82 billion.

"Remittances continued exceptional performance in Feb 21, reaching $2.26 bn, up 24.2% compared to Feb 20 and roughly same as last month," said State Bank of Pakistan on its official twitter account on Thursday.

For the first eight months of this fiscal year, remittances reached $18.74 billion and have risen by 24.1 percent over last fiscal year.

Efforts under the Pakistan Remittances Initiative (PRI) and the gradual re-opening of major host destinations such as Middle East, Europe and United States contributed to the sustained increase in workers’ remittances.

The details show that in February, the worker's inflow from USA increased from $138 million last year to $210.8 million in the same month of 2020, whereas from United Kingdom the inflow also surged to $349.2 million from $173.8 million in February 2020.

Similarly from Saudi Arabia the workers' remittances also rose from $513.1 million to $532.6 million while that from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman, the workers' inflow also rose to $429 million, $51.7 million, $5.2 million, $38.2 million, $71.8 million and $82.3 million respectively.

The workers' remittances from European countries also jumped to $256 million in February 2021 compared to the inflow worth of $132.6 million in February 2020.

Likewise from Malaysia, the Pakistanis sent $15.7 million, from Australia $50.2 million, from Canada $45.6 million and from Japan, an amount of $6.5 million was transferred.