Remittances slow down to $2.25b

Fall 9% from $2.46b in Oct due to volatile exchange rate

KARACHI:

The remittances sent home by overseas Pakistanis slowed down to $2.25 billion in November 2023 partly due to the return of volatility in rupee-dollar exchange rate in the first half of the month and partly because of a global economic slowdown.

The remittances dropped from a seven-month high of $2.46 billion reached in October 2023.

State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) data on Friday showed that the inflow of workers’ remittances decreased 9% to $2.25 billion in November compared to $2.46 billion in October.

The inflows, however, improved 4% when compared with the remittances of $2.17 billion received in the same month of last year.

Overall, in the first five months (Jul-Nov) of current fiscal year, the remittances dipped 10% to $11.05 billion compared to $12.32 billion in the same period of last year.

Data breakdown showed that inflows from Saudi Arabia decreased 12% to $540 million in November compared to $617 million in the prior month.

Expatriate Pakistanis sent home $409 million from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which was 14% lower compared to $474 million in October.

Non-resident Pakistanis sent $268 million from European Union member countries, which was 10% less than $298 million received in the previous month.

Remittances from the United States dropped 8% to $261 million compared to $283 million in the previous month.

Read: SBP brings incentives to attract remittances

Inflows from other countries decreased 7% to $429 million compared to $461 million last month.

UK was the only source from where remittances improved in November, which went up 3% to $342 million compared to $330 million in the previous month.

Earlier, the return of volatility in rupee-dollar exchange rate in the first two weeks of November had encouraged the illegal Hawala-Hundi network operators to re-emerge in the border areas of Afghanistan and in the Middle Eastern countries.

They offer higher prices to Pakistani expatriates for sending their foreign currency earnings back home, leading to a decline in the inflow of remittances through official channels.

In addition, the global economic slowdown has reduced the capacity of overseas Pakistanis to send more money to their family members and relatives in the country, partly resulting in a reduction in official inflows.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2023.

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