KARACHI: The inflow of remittance swelled to $8.981 billion in the first half of the current fiscal year, showing a growth of 15.2 percent as compared to $7.792 billion in the corresponding period of last year.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan, inflows remittances has been increasing each year despite acts of terrorism and political unrest in the country.
Remittances in December, at $1.583bn, were 20 per cent higher than November and 14.3 per cent higher than December 2013. The higher remittances will help the country to build its reserves as the oil price plunge in the international market has created room for reduction in oil import bill.
However, the trade deficit has widened by 33.97 percent to $12.3 billion during the first half of the current year from $9.054 billion during the same period of FY14. The rising trade deficit limits the impact of high remittances and could also compromise the potential of growth. The SBP report showed that remittances increased from almost all the traditional sources, but dropped by 9.3pc to $196 million from the 28-nation European Union.
The highest amount was received from Saudi Arabia as remittances from the country rose 20pc to $2.649bn from $2.203bn during the same period last year. The remittances increased by 4pc to $1.306bn from the United States, by 2pc to $1.169bn from the UK, and by 15.6pc to $1.037bn from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar apart from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
