KARACHI: The overseas Pakistanis have remitted $13.33 billion in first nine months (July-March) of current fiscal year, reflecting a growth of 15 per cent as compared to the remittances of $11.586b recorded during the same period of previous year.
According to External Relations Department of the State Bank of Pakistan, remittances from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries constituted 64.4pc (collectively $8.589 billion) of the total remittances received during the period. In FY14, the same Arab countries contributed 61.5pc, a total amount of $9.738 billion. The entire remittances in FY14 were $15.837 billion.
The State Bank said the remittances from the United States and the United Kingdom also increased by 2.6pc and 2.3pc respectively. Pakistanis from US sent $1.871 billion and $1.670 billion were sent from the United Kingdom.
Per month average of remittances has substantially increased this year. If the monthly average remains $1.480 billion ($1.287 billion in nine months in FY14), the country could accumulate close to $18 billion remittances which would be higher than the foreign exchange reserves of the country.
The foreign exchange reserves of the country are $16.7 billion. The finance minister recently said the reserves could reach $18 billion at the end of this fiscal year.
During March 2015, the inflow of workers’ remittances amounted to $1.576 billion, which is 13.3pc higher than February 2015 and 18pc higher than March 2014.
