Remittances rise by 13% to $3.5b

Remittances continue to show a rising trend as a total of $3,501.4 million is received first 4 months of fiscal year.

KARACHI: Remittances continued to show a rising trend as a total of $3,501.4 million was received in the first four months of the current fiscal year 2010-11.

This represented an increase of $411.61 million or 13.32 per cent over the same period of the last fiscal year.

In October 2010, an amount of $855.1 million was sent home by overseas Pakistanis, up 12.77 per cent or $96.81 million, when compared with $758.29 million received in the same month last year.

The monthly average of remittances for July-October 2010 comes out to $875.35 million as compared to $772.45 million during the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, registering an increase of 13.32 per cent.

The UAE accounted for the lion’s share of remittances with a total of $819.57 million flowing into Pakistan during July-October and $198.29 million in October alone. The State Bank of Pakistan, ministry of finance and ministry of overseas Pakistanis had earlier undertaken a joint initiative called Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) to facilitate the flow of remittances through formalised channels. According to SBP, the initiative has started paying dividends and remittances through formalised channels are showing a considerable growth. Pakistan has also shown the highest growth in the world in remittances, said the SBP.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2010.