Pakistan's Remittances remain strong in August, surpass $2bn for the third month

Remittances from Overseas Pakistanis continued its strong runs, as the workers’ remittances in August, remained above $2 billion for the third month in a row.

As per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the remittances reached $2.095 billion, which is 24.4 percent higher than during the same month last year and largely in line with SBP projections.

“Overseas Pakistanis sent $2,095 million in remittances in Aug 2020 -- 24.4% higher than Aug. last year -- in addition to the record $2,768 million in July 2020. For the first two months of this fiscal year, our remittances are up 31% over the same period last year. Alhamdulillah,” tweeted Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday.

Over the last three months, remittances reached an unprecedented level of $7.3 billion, 37.2 percent higher than the same period last year.

The central bank was of the view that the efforts under the Pakistan Remittances Initiative (PRI) and the gradual re-opening of businesses in major host countries such as Middle East, Europe and United States contributed to this increase.

The top three originating countries for remittances in August were: Saudi Arabia ($0.593 billion), UAE ($0.410 billion) and UK ($0.302 billion). Meanwhile, on a month to month, remittances were 24.3 percent lower than the record level of remittances of $ 2.768 billion posted in July, mainly reflecting the usual seasonal decline in the post Eid-alAdha period.