Remittances reach highest ever in one month: PM

Prime Minister Imran Khan revealed on Monday that remittances flowing into Pakistan reached $2,768 million in July 2020 - the highest ever amount recorded in a single month in the history of Pakistan.

Taking to Twitter, the prime minister shared the "good news" for Pakistan's economy, saying the increase in July was 12.2pc higher than June 2020 and 36.5pc higher when compared with July 2019.

"More good news for Pak economy. Remittances from overseas Pakistanis reached $2,768 mn in July 2020, highest ever amount in one month in the history of Pakistan. This is 12.2% increase over June 2020 and 36.5% increase over July 2019," the premier stated.

Though a hiccup in ties between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia was recently noticed, the country-wise remittances showed that the highest amount of money - $821.55 million - in July was sent to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with 538.19 million dollars. In June 2020, the remittances from KSA and UAE were $619.43 million and 431.68, respectively.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan's statistics, the overseas Pakistanis remitted $443.13 million from Dubai, $393.91 million from the United Kingdom, $250.6 million from the US, $88.29 million from Abu Dhabi and $4.69 million from Sharjah in July. The SBP stats show that a major decrease was seen in the remittances from the US, which dropped from $451m in June to $250.6m in July 2020.

The remittances from other GCC countries - Bahrain $42,62m, Kuwait $69.83m, Qatar $82.49m and Oman $102m - is recorded at $296.95 million in the last month.

Similarly, the remittances received from the European countries - Germany $35.34m, France $32.99m, Netherland $4.5m, Spain $38.9m, Italy $49.46m, Greece $20.01m, Sweden $4.85m, Denmark $6m, Ireland $12.25m, Belgium $23,27m - reached to a total $227.57 million.

Pakistan received $22.25m from Malaysia, $10.91m from Norway, $2.83m from Switzerland, $52.11m from Australia, $43.13m from Canada and $9.31m from Japan. The SBP stated that $98.82m were received from other countries, making it to a total of $2768.13 m in July 2020. In June 2020, the total remittances received from these countries were 2,466.28.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic coupled with global lockdowns, the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Abdul Hafeez Sheikh wrapped up the economic performance of the government before the federal cabinet on August 12, saying the fiscal and primary deficit was lower than expected, central bank's reserves increased and the current account deficit was slashed from 20 billion dollars to three billion dollars in two years.

While giving a rundown of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government's two-year economic performance, the PM's advisor said that the fiscal deficit post-Covid-19 was expected at 9.1% but it was recorded at 8.1% and the primary deficit expected at 3.1% was recorded at 1.8% - the lower the primary deficit, the better.

Sheikh said that the current account deficit was brought down from $20b to only $3b while the reserves of SBP had increased from $ 8.5b to $12.5b.

PM Imran has subsequently congratulated the nation in a tweet, saying that there was an upturn in the economy after a struggle of two years. Imran said that the current account and fiscal deficits are down; construction industry and through it job creation is taking off because of the govt's special incentives.