Pakistan's remittance inflow to suffer slowdown amid coronavirus

• Millions of job losses and border closures since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic have led the annual flow of global remittances to contract.
• A third of Pakistan remittance coming from the United States and the UK, two of the hardest-hit countries by COVID-19.

With the coronavirus pandemic diminishing the economic activity around the world, the remittance outflows too will bear the brunt especially for countries dependent on them including Pakistan.

As per Bloomberg, millions of job losses and border closures since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic have led the annual flow of $690 billion global remittances to contract, which comes at a time when many economies need hard currency more than ever to combat the ongoing health crisis.

The situation will also affect the remittance income for Pakistan with almost a third of its remittance coming from the United States and the UK, two of the hardest-hit countries at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, opined Mohamed Abu Basha, head of macroeconomic research at Cairo-based investment bank EFG Hermes.

“I would expect to see a bit of a slowdown for one to two quarters because of that exposure,” Abu Basha said, adding that some of the drops will be offset by lower fuel costs.

Remittances from overseas workers account for 8 percent of Pakistan's economy.

Pakistan received remittances worth $1,824.3 million in February 2020, showing a growth of 15.3pc or $242.5 million on a year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, Overseas Pakistanis remitted $15.126bn during the first eight months of the current fiscal year.