Remittances saving grace, grow 5.2% in Jul-Oct

Amount to $6.5b compared to $6.2b in corresponding period last year

KARACHI: Overseas Pakistanis sent remittances amounting to $6.5 billion in the first four months of 2015-16, which translates into a year-on-year (YoY) increase of 5.2%, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday.

Remittances amounted to a little less than $6.2 billion in the same months of the preceding fiscal year. They amounted to $1.5 billion in October alone, which is 13.3% less than the remittances received in the preceding month, SBP data shows.

Pakistanis based in foreign countries sent home $18.4 billion in 2014-15, which translated into a YoY increase of 16.5%. Inflows from Saudi Arabia were the largest source of remittances in July-October. They amounted to $1.9 billion in the four months, up 10.7% from the corresponding period of the last year.



Remittances received in July-October from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) increased 9% to almost $1.5 billion on a YoY basis. Inflows from the UAE had registered the largest increase (26.1%) from any major remittance-sending country in 2014-15, SBP data shows. In the last four months of the current fiscal year, remittances from Dubai have surged 43% YoY. But the figure for overall inflows from the UAE so far has remained subdued because of a 30% annual decline in remittances from Abu Dhabi over the same period.

Remittances from the United States and the United Kingdom remained $904 million and $869.4 million, respectively, in July-October. The YoY change in remittances from the US and the UK has been -6.1% and 2.3%, respectively.

Remittances from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, excluding Saudi Arabia and the UAE, clocked up at $771 million in July-October, which is 9.1% higher than the remittances received from these countries in the same months of the preceding fiscal year.

Remittances from Kuwait in July-October equalled $234.1 million while those from Oman, Bahrain and Qatar amounted to $260 million, $158.2 million and $118.6 million, respectively.

This means the overall share of the oil-rich GCC countries in Pakistan is 63.9%. Many analysts fear remittances from these countries may dwindle going forward, as their governments begin to scale back infrastructure spending in the wake of a sharp fall in global oil prices.

Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and ‘other countries’ in October amounted to $112.59 million as opposed to $108.79 million received in the same month of 2014.

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

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