Remittances remain above $2b for sixth month in a row: PM Imran
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Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said workers' remittances continued to grow during the last month, maintaining the tradition of receiving over $2 billion for a sixth consecutive month.
"More good news for Pakistan's economy," said PM Imran on his official twitter handle.
The premier said that according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), remittances rose to $2.34 billion, up 2.4 per cent over the previous month, and 28.4 per cent over November 2019.
According to the SBP, workers’ remittances increased 14% to $2.28 billion in October, compared to $2 billion in the same month of last year.
The remittances remained flat compared to the previous month of September. Cumulatively, in the first four months (July-October) of current fiscal year FY21, the inflows surged a notable 26.57% to $9.43 billion compared to $7.45 billion in the same period of previous year, the central bank added.
“Receipt of workers’ remittances remains on the higher side as overseas Pakistanis continue to send money through official banking channels…due to restricted international travel (in an effort to contain the Covid-19 pandemic around the globe),” said Tangent Capital Advisers CEO Muzammil Aslam while talking to The Express Tribune.
He elaborated that earlier a number of overseas Pakistanis used to bring remittances in the form of hard cash along with them when they visited their families before the Covid-19 outbreak. Besides, the remittances continued to surge with the offer of better rupee-dollar exchange rate to the recipients in Pakistan and increased commission to international and domestic financial institutions on the transfer of remittances to Pakistan under the central bank’s Pakistan Remittances Initiative (PRI), he said.
Thirdly, the domestic authorities’ strong check over illegal transfer of funds to and from Pakistan in an effort to come out of the grey list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) also helped ramp up remittances through the official channels, he said. He said such developments would provide much-needed support for increasing the inflow of remittances in future.