RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: Overseas Pakistani workers remitted over $8bn billion in the first five months (July-Nov) of this fiscal year (FY18).
Overall, home remittances posted a nominal growth, moving up by 1.28 percent during the first five months of this fiscal year. Overseas Pakistani workers remitted $8.021 billion in July to November of FY18 compared with $7.920 billion received during the same period in the preceding year, depicting an increase of $101 million.
During November 2017, inflows of workers' remittances amounted to $1.577 billion, which is 4.7 percent lower than October 2017 and 2.6 percent lower than November 2016. During October 2017, Pakistan received home remittances worth $1.654 billion and $1.618 billion in November 2016.
The detailed analysis revealed that major decline was witnessed in the inflows from Saudi Arabia. Workers' remittances from Saudi Arabia fell by 7 percent to $2.099 billion in first five months of this fiscal year compared to $2.259 billion in the same period of last fiscal year. Despite some decline, Saudi Arabia is still the largest contributor to home remittances.
Similarly, inflows from UK increased to $1.1277 billion in July-Nov of FY18 against $916 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal year, showing an increase of 23 percent. With 5.63 percent increase, inflows from the US stood at $1.045 billion in the first five months of this fiscal year up from $990 million in the same period of last fiscal year.
The country-wise details for November 2017 show that inflows from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) and EU countries amounted to $409.52 million, $352.64 million, $204.28 million, $213.47 million, $191.83 million and $49.06 million, respectively compared with the inflow of $465.19 million, $362.82 million, $194.04 million, $192.8 million, $193.12 million and $37.03 million, respectively in November 2016.
Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during November 2017 amounted to $155.92 million together against $173.35 million received in November 2016.
