KARACHI: Inflows of workers’ remittances continued to post healthy growth and surpassing all-previous records, reached all-time high level of $24.25 billion in the first 10 months of this fiscal year.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), proactive policy measures by the government and the SBP to encourage more inflows through formal channels has supported to achieve this milestone. In addition, curtailed cross-border travel in the face of COVID-19, altruistic transfers to Pakistan amid the pandemic, orderly foreign exchange market conditions and, more recently, Eid-related inflows have also contributed to record levels of remittances this year, it added. The latest statistics released by the SBP showed that home remittances, sent by overseas Pakistanis, posted a notable increased of 29 percent during the first 10 months of this fiscal year.
On a cumulative basis, remittances have surpassed all previous records and also crossed the full FY20 level of $23.1 billion by more than $1 billion. Overall, remittances inflows amounted to $24.246 billion were received in July-April FY21 compared to $18.794 billion in corresponding period of the last fiscal year, depicting an increase of $5.4 billion.
Monthly inflows of workers’ remittances also rose to an all-time monthly high of $2.8 billion in April 2021, some 56 percent higher than during the same month last year, in which workers’ remittances $17.8 billion were arrived. The growth in monthly home remittances is mainly due to Eid-ul-Fitr as overseas Pakistanis sent more inflows to their families in Pakistan for Eid.
Remittance inflows during July-April FY21 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US).
With 20 percent growth, Saudi Arabia is the largest contributor in the home remittances arrived this fiscal year. Home remittance from Saudi Arabia posted 20 percent growth from $5.3 billion in July-April FY20 to $6.39 billion in same period of this fiscal year.
Inflows from UK and US increased by 68 percent and 58 percent to $3.3 billion and $2.2 billion in the first ten months of current fiscal year. Similarly, home remittances from UAE stood at $5 billion, up by 8.4 percent.
Analysts are expecting the current momentum of home remittances will continue in the remaining two months of this fiscal year and likely to reach near $30 billion end of June 21. They said that healthy inflows have also helped to reduce the pressure on external account and build the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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