July-January fiscal year 2018: workers' remittances cross $11 billion mark

Workers' remittance sent by overseas Pakistani crossed $11 billion mark in the first seven months (July-Jan) of this fiscal year (FY18). According to latest statistics issued by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) overseas Pakistani workers have remitted $11.383 billion in July to January of FY18 as compared with $10.993 billion received during the same period of the preceding year, depicting a growth of 3.55 percent or $390 million. The slow growth is home remittance is attributed to some decline in inflows from Saudi Arabia, which is the largest contributor.
Month-on-month basis, during January 2018, the inflow of workers' remittances were amounted to $1.639 billion, which is some 5 percent lower than December 2017, in which some $1.724 billion home remittances were received. Similarly, inflows of home remittances in January 2018 were some 10 percent higher than January 2017 with $1.488 billion home remittances inflows.
The detailed analysis revealed that out of three major corridors of home remittances, two, ie the UK and the USA have witnessed upward trend, while inflows from Saudi Arabia slightly declined. Workers' remittances from Saudi Arabia fell 8 percent to $2.915 billion in July-January of FY18 compared to $3.169 billion in same period of last fiscal year (FY17). Despite some decline, Saudi Arabia is still the largest contributor in the home remittances inflows.
Similarly, inflows from the UK increased to $1.585 billion in the first seven months of this fiscal year as against $1.279 billion in corresponding period of last fiscal year, showing an increase of 24 percent. During the period under review, with an increase of 11.64 percent, inflow from the USA stood at $1.505 billion.
The country-wise details for the month of January 2018 show that inflows from Saudi Arabia, UAE, the USA, the UK, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) and EU countries were amounted to $384 million, $351.58 million, $224 million, $235 million, $186.33 million and $56.4 million respectively compared with the inflow of $434.15 million, $323.29 million, $175.39 million, $180.91 million, $186.41 million and $31.69 million respectively in January 2017.
Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during January 2018 amounted to $201.46 million together as against $156.53 million received in January 2017.