KARACHI: The inflows of home remittances have maintained a handsome growth, surging to nearly USD 13 billion in the first four months of the current financial year.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), home remittances, from overseas Pakistanis and workers, posted a growth of 9.3 percent in July-Oct of FY26. Pakistan received remittances amounting to USD 12.95 billion in the first four months of this fiscal year compared to USD 11.851 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year (FY25), depicting an increase of USD 1.1 billion.
Inflows from Saudi Arabia increased by 7 percent to reach USD 3.13 billion in the first four months of the fiscal year. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) ranked second, with remittances rising by 12 percent to USD 2.68 billion. Remittances from the United Kingdom (UK) also showed growth, rising by 5 percent to USD 1.86 billion. However, inflows from the United States (USA) declined by 9 percent, amounting to USD 1.10 billion during the period from July to October of FY26.
Since December 2024, home remittances have maintained the USD 3 billion monthly inflows that largely helped to reduce the pressure on external account.
Accordingly, remittances also increased by 7.4 percent and 12 percent on m/m and y/y basis respectively in October 2025. The remittances inflows from expatriate Pakistanis received by the country stood at USD 3.4 billion in October 2025 up from USD 3.05 billion in October 2024.
Remittances inflows during October 2025 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia amounted to USD 820.9 million, United Arab Emirates USD 697.7 million, United Kingdom USD 487.7 million and United States of America worth USD 290 million.
The increase in remittance inflows was attributed to manpower exports to different countries and the government’s consistent efforts to streamline banking channels through subsidies and the development of payment mechanisms.
Ibrahim Amin, a banking and financial expert, said that the inflows of remittance are healthier though these are less than the potential of the country due to utility of non-banking channels by overseas Pakistanis workers.
He said that technological solutions, incentives and facilitation to overseas workers could enhance the inflows of remittances up to USD 1 billion every month additionally particularly from the Gulf states.
He urged the government to enhance its efforts to enable Raast-Buna collaboration as soon as possible, while banks and fintech operators should also develop incentivized and easy technological solutions to encourage overseas Pakistanis to send remittances to Pakistan via banking channels.
The government experts also agree that immigration leads to ‘Brain Gain,’ because when educated Pakistanis enhance the country’s reputation abroad with their skills, it directly benefits Pakistan’s economy and global standing, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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