KARACHI: The workers’ remittances have increased by 11.3 percent to $15.8 billion during the first half of current fiscal year FY22. According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data issued on Friday, the country received over $2 billion in account of workers’ remittances only in the month of December 2021.
With $2.5 billion of inflows during the month of December 2021, workers’ remittances continued their strong impetus of remaining above $2 billion since June 2020.
In terms of growth, remittances increased by 2.5 percent on month-on-month basis and 3.4 percent on year-on-year basis in December 2021. Cumulatively, at $15.8 billion, remittances grew by 11.3 percent during the first half of FY22 over the same period last year.
Remittances maintain momentum, amount to $2.5bn in December
Remittance inflows during December 2021 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ($626.6 million), United Arab Emirates ($453.2 million), United Kingdom ($340.8 million) and United States of America ($248.5 million).
Proactive policy measures by the government and SBP to incentivize the use of formal channels and altruistic transfers to Pakistan amid the pandemic have positively contributed towards the sustained inflows of remittances since last year.
The July-November FY22 data of Workers’ Remittances has been revised upward to reflect inflows into Roshan Digital Accounts (RDA) that are related to local consumption (like payment of utility bills, transfer to local PKR account, etc.).
Since data on these conversions was not previously available by country, these were reported under ‘other private transfers’ in the balance of payments statistics. The December 2021 data is also compiled accordingly, and this treatment will be followed going forward, SBP said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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