Pak gets record $29.4b remittances

ISLAMABAD: The amount sent by overseas Pakistani workersduringjuly-june(2020-2021)postedahistoric annual high of $29.4 billion, showing an increase of 27 per cent when compared with the preceding years’ remitances worth of $23.13 billion.

“With inflows of around $2.7 billion last month, workers’remitancescontinuedtheirunprecedented streak of above $2b for a record 13 months in a row,” the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said a statement on Tuesday.

On year-on-year basis, the inflows posted 9 per cent growth in June 2021 over the same month of last year while on month-on-month basis the growth was recorded at 8 per cent in the corresponding month against May 2021.

According to the SBP statement, the seasonal pre-eid related inflows helped to further boost remitances level during June.

Despite the difficult global economic situation last year, the historical growth of tributaries helped to improve the country’s external sector. Compared with the previous year, transfer payments in FY21 increased by 27 per cent, which was the strongest increase since FY03. Remitance inflows during FY21 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ($7.7b), UAE ($6.1b), Britain ($4.1b) and US ($2.7b).

Overall, record high inflows of workers’ remittances during FY21 have been driven by proactive policy measures by the Pakistan Tehrik-e-insaf (PTI) government and SBP to encourage the use of official channels, restrictions cross-border travel in the face of virus infections, altruistic transfers to Pakistan amid the pandemic, and orderly foreign exchange market conditions.

It should be noted that the transfer amount for 12 consecutive months is $2 billion, which is the first time in the country’s history that it has reached $26.7b received during July 2020-May 2021 is 29.4 per cent more than in the previous year.

Earlier, the SBP said that total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $24.41 billion as of July 2, 2021.