Islamabad: The
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday published a press release indicating that the remittances
sent by the Pakistani
diaspora working abroad had increased by 9.3 percent during January — when
contrasted with the amount of remittances recorded for the same month last year,
according to news sources.
The bank announced that the remittances had surged by US$163.2 million to reach a new figure of $1.91 billion in January 2020; up from the $1.744 billion value recorded during January 2019.
During this
the last month, Workers’
Remittances received from certain countries were recorded to be higher than
usual. These states included Saudi
Arabia ($ 433.4 million), UAE ($395.5 million), USA ($335.1 million) and the UK ($299.1 million).
According to sources, the growth in foreign remittances that increased to $11.4 billion during the July-December period of FY 2020 is likely to continue for the rest of the year. This is due to a number of government policies that may assist in achieving the target of $24 billion set for this year.
Due to this
increasing trend in remittances, the target of $24 billion at the end of FY2020
is likely to be achieved;
as the data over the last
five years indicates that the workers remitted more in the last six months as compared to the first
six months of the fiscal year.
