Incoming: Remittances increase 16% over previous year

Amount to $16.6b in first 11 months of current fiscal year.

KARACHI: Overseas Pakistanis sent remittances amounting to $16.6 billion in the first 11 months of 2014-15, which translates into a year-on-year increase of 16%, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday.

Remittances amounted to $14.3 billion over the same 11-month period of the preceding fiscal year.

Pakistanis based in foreign countries sent home $1.4 billion in May, which is 12.2% less than the remittances received in the preceding month of April.

Inflows from Saudi Arabia were the largest source of remittances in the first 11 months of 2014-15. They amounted to over $5 billion in July-May, up 19.6% from the same 11 months of 2013-14.

Remittances received in July-May from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) increased 34.4% to $3.7 billion on a year-on-year basis. Inflows from the UAE registered the largest increase from any major remittance-sending country during the last 11 months, SBP data shows.

Remittances from the United States and the United Kingdom were $2.3 billion and $2 billion, respectively. The year-on-year increase in remittances from the US and the UK has been 3.6% and 3%, respectively. Remittances from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, excluding Saudi Arabia and the UAE, stood at $1.9 billion in July-May, which is 14.8% higher than the remittances received from these countries in the same period of previous year.



Remittances from Kuwait in 11 months were $678.5 million while those from Oman, Bahrain and Qatar amounted to $602.3 million, $346.2 million and $314.8 million, respectively.

Remittances from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries in May amounted to $101 million as opposed to $97.47 million received in the same month of the previous 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.

The monthly average of remittances during the first 11 months of 2014-15 remained $1.5 billion, which was up 16% from the monthly average of remittances amounting to $1.3 billion in July-May 2013-14.

Remittances in the first six months of the current fiscal year increased regardless of a strong wave of political instability that began in August with sit-ins by opposition parties and fizzled out after the attack on Army Public School in December.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th,  2015.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.