4MFY15: Remittances clock in at $6.07b

Up 15.2% from comparative period previous year.

KARACHI: Overseas Pakistanis sent remittances amounting to over $6.07 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year, which translates into a year-on-year increase of 15.2%, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan on Thursday.

Remittances amounted to $5.2 billion over the same four-month period of the preceding fiscal year.

Pakistanis based in foreign countries sent home $1.38 billion in October, which is 19.4% less than the amount of remittances received in the preceding month of September.

Inflows from Saudi Arabia have been the largest source of remittances so far in 2014-15. They amounted to $ 1.72 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year, up 17.95% from the same four months of 2013-14.

Remittances received in July-October from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have increased 27.3% to $1.35 billion on a year-on-year basis. Inflows from the UAE registered the largest increase from any country during the last four months.



Remittances from the United States and the United Kingdom remained $905.47 million and $824.6 million, respectively, in the last four months. The year-on-year increase in remittances from the US and the UK has been 6.52% and 2.1%, respectively.

Remittances from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, excluding Saudi Arabia and the UAE, clocked up at $698.13 million in July-October, which is 15.5% higher than the remittances received from these countries in the same period of the preceding fiscal year.

Remittances from Kuwait in the first four months of 2014-15 equalled $255.18 million while those from Oman, Bahrain and Qatar amounted to $212.28 million, $119.11 million and $111.56 million, respectively.

Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during the last month amounted to $107.58 million, up 9.8% from $97.97 million received in the same month of the preceding fiscal year.

In the last fiscal year, overseas Pakistanis sent home $15.8 billion, which was 13.7% higher than the remittances of $13.9 billion received in 2012-13.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2014.

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