Remittances inch up 1.28 percent in five months

KARACHI: Remittances to Pakistan rose slightly by 1.28 percent year-on-year to $8.021 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal year, the central bank data showed on Monday.

The inflow of remittances amounted to $1.576 billion in November, down 4.7 percent from last month and 2.6 percent down November last year.

The marginal increase in remittances during July-November FY18 was mainly attributed to lower inflows from the big source markets in Gulf region, especially Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

However, other major corridors, such as UK, US and Europe saw remittance increase, offsetting the negative impacts of slow growth in remittance flows from the Middle East countries.

The biggest rise in remittances came from the European Union countries followed by the UK.

According to the figures of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Saudi Arabia flows to Pakistan fell 7.10 percent during the period under review.

The country received $2.098 billion in remittances from expatriates in Saudi Aria in the first five months compared with $2.259 billion during the same period a year ago.

Remittances from the UAE remained almost flat at $1.763 billion, the SBP data showed.

Pakistanis living in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states sent home $939.85 million in July-November FY18, a decrease of 1.28 percent over $952.01 million sent in the corresponding period of last fiscal year. The SBP’s data showed that the country attracted $260 million in remittances from EU countries, 33.18 percent higher than a year earlier. Other source countries were US with inflows of $1.045 billion and UK $1.127 million.