Prime Minister Imran Khan revealed on Monday that the remittances flowing into Pakistan reached $2,768 million in July 2020 – the highest ever amount in one month in the history of Pakistan.
Taking to Twitter, the prime minister shared the “good news” for Pakistan’s economy, saying the increase in July was 12.2% higher than June 2020 and 36.5% higher when compared with July 2019.
“More good news for Pak economy. Remittances from overseas Pakistanis reached $2,768 million in July 2020, highest ever amount in one month in the history of Pakistan. This is 12.2% increase over June 2020 and 36.5% increase over July 2019,” the premier wrote on the microblogging website.
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More good news for Pak economy. Remittances from overseas Pakistanis reached $2,768 mn in July 2020, highest ever amount in one month in the history of Pakistan. This is 12.2% increase over June 2020 and 36.5% increase over July 2019.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 17, 2020
The country-wise breakup of the remittances showed that the highest amount – $821.55 million – in July came from Saudi Arabia followed by $538.19 million from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In June 2020, the remittances from Saudi Arabia and the UAE were $619.43 million and $431.68, respectively.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) statistics, overseas Pakistanis remitted $443.13 million from Dubai, $393.91 million from the United Kingdom, $250.6 million from the US, $88.29 million from Abu Dhabi and $4.69 million from Sharjah in July.
The remittances from other Gulf countries was recorded at $296.95 million, including $42,62 million from Bahrain, $69.83 million from Kuwait, $82.49 million from Qatar and $102 million from Oman. The SBP data however. Showed a major decline in the remittances from US to $250.6 million in July from $451 million in June.
The remittances received from the European countries last month were $227.57 million. They included Germany $35.34 million, France $32.99 million, The Netherlands $4.5 million, Spain $38.9 million, Italy $49.46 million, Greece $20.01 million, Sweden $4.85 million, Denmark $6 million, Ireland $12.25 million, and Belgium $23,27 million.
Pakistan received $22.25 million from Malaysia, $10.91 million from Norway, $2.83 million from Switzerland, $52.11 million from Australia, $43.13 million from Canada and $9.31 million from Japan. The SBP stated that $98.82m were received from other countries, making it to a total of $2,768.13 million in July 2020. In June 2020, the total remittances received from these countries were $2,466.28 million.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic coupled with global lockdowns, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Hafeez Sheikh wrapped up the economic performance of the government before the federal cabinet on August 12, saying the fiscal and primary deficit were lower than expected, while the central bank’s reserves had increased and the current account deficit was slashed from $20 billion to $3 billion in two years.
While giving a rundown of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government’s two-year economic performance, the financial adviser said that the fiscal deficit post-Covid-19 was expected at 9.1% but it was recorded at 8.1% and the primary deficit which was expected at 3.1% was recorded at 1.8%.
The lower the primary deficit, the better. Sheikh also said that the SBP reserves had increased from $8.5 billion to $12.5 billion. Prime Minister Imran had subsequently congratulated the nation in a tweet, saying that there was an upturn in the economy after a struggle of two years.
Imran said that the current account and fiscal deficits were down; construction industry and the job creation through it was taking off because of the government’s special incentives. He added that the stock market, exports and revenues, cement as well as car sales had gone up despite the pandemic.
It was, however, reported that the bulk of Covid-19 aid funds remained unspent and it was also a reason behind the relatively low budget deficit of 8.1% of the GDP or Rs3.4 trillion in the last fiscal year as against the earlier estimates of 9.4% of the GDP.
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