LAHORE: The amounts sent to the country by the overseas Pakistanis have increased 16.5 per cent on annual basis as US$18.5 billion were sent during fiscal year 2014-15 against US$15.8 billion of the previous year.
As per the data released by State Bank of Pakistan, most of the remittances were sent from Saudi Arabia (up 19.1 percent) and UAE (up 35.3 percent), while remittances from European countries witnessed a sharp fall of 16.3 percent due to ongoing slowdown in the region.
In last 5 years (FY10-15) worker remittances increased at CAGR of 15.7 percent while 10-year CAGR stands at 16.0 percent. The steadily growing remittances have become an important stabilizer for Pakistan’s external account balance in recent years.
In FY15, the inflow of USD18.5 billion (6.8 percent of GDP) is likely to fully compensate for the cumulative deficit in trade and services account. For FY16, it is expected the similar trend will continue, though the magnitude may remain slow due to ongoing economic crisis in Euro region and expected slowdown in GCC after international crude oil price decline.
