RIZWAN BHATTI
KARACHI: With $2.7 billion inflows, workers’ remittances maintained strong trend in the first month of this fiscal year. Although home remittances arrived during July 2021 were some 2.1 percent lower than July 2020, they remained above the $2.0 billion mark for the 14th consecutive month.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday reported that Pakistan received workers’ remittances amounting to $2.71 billion in July 2021 compared to $2.764 billion in July 2020, depicting a decline of $57 million.
According to SBP, this marginal year on year decline was largely on account of Eid-ul-Azha, which resulted in fewer working days this July compared to last year. Proactive policy measures by the Government and SBP to incentivise the use of formal channels, curtailed cross-border travel in the face of COVID-19, altruistic transfers to Pakistan amid the pandemic, and orderly foreign exchange market conditions have positively contributed towards the sustained improvement in remittance inflows since last year, the SBP said.
Inflows of $2.71 billion in July 2021, is the second-highest ever level of remittances reported in the month of July. In terms of growth, remittances increased by 0.7 percent over the previous month i.e. June 2021, in which $ 2.688 billion remittances were received.
Remittance inflows during July 2021 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia (SA), United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US).
Inflows from Saudi Arabia fell 22 percent to $641 million in the first months of this fiscal year as against $821 million in the same period of last fiscal year. Despite massive decline, SA is still the largest contributor in the home remittances inflows.
Workers’ remittances from UAE decreased from $538 million to $531 million. Inflows from the UK remained stable at $393 million. Inflows from the United States posted a notable growth of 24 percent to $312 million in the first months of this fiscal year.
On a cumulative basis, remittances rose to a historic annual high level of $29.4 billion during the last fiscal year (FY21) supported by the government’s proactive policy measures.
