KARACHI: Remittances sent by Pakistanis living abroad stood at $2.39 billion with an increase of 26 percent year-on-year.
According to the State Bank, remittances in January were 2.39 billion dollars, which were 1.90 billion dollars in the same month of last year, while remittances were 2.38 billion dollars in December 2023, while remittances were 15.83 billion dollars during the seven months of the current financial year, with a decrease of 3%. Which was 16.32 during the same period last year.
According to data released by the State Bank, the highest remittances were received from Saudi Arabia, which stood at $587 million with a 43 percent increase year-on-year, followed by remittances from the United Arab Emirates with a 51 percent increase at $408 million. Also, remittances from the UK increased by 9% to $362 million, remittances from the US increased by 32% to $283 million.
It may be recalled that Governor State Bank had said at the end of January that remittances will increase during January-June due to the announcement of more remittances to dealers, in addition to the improvement in global economic conditions. Due to this, the income of Pakistanis living abroad increased and they sent more remittances.
Governor State Bank had said that remittances will be 28 billion dollars this fiscal year, which was 27 billion dollars last year.
Tahir Abbas, Research Head of Arif Habib Limited, said that due to the coming of two Eids, the remittances will continue to increase for the next five months, the remittances are likely to be 28.5 billion dollars, which is the IMF. Estimates are much closer to $29.4 billion.
