Remittances sent home by overseas Pakistanis continued to show a rising trend as an amount of $3,501.40 million was received in the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal year, showing an increase of $411.61 million or 13.32 percent over the same period the last fiscal year.
In October 2010, an amount of $855.10 million was sent home by overseas Pakistanis, up 12.77 percent or $96.81 million, as compared to $758.29 million received in the same month last year. The inflow of remittances in the July-October 2010 period from UAE, Saudi Arabia, USA, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman), UK and EU countries amounted to $819.57 million, $764.32 million, $666.27 million, $416.91 million, $393.25 million and $117.08 million, respectively, as compared to $679.23 million, $573.60 million, $653.06 million, $435.23 million, $315.82 million and $102.22 million, respectively, in the July-October 2009 period. Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during the first four months of the current fiscal year amounted to $324.01 million against $329.76 million in the same period last year.
The monthly average remittances for the July-October 2010 period comes out to $875.35 million as compared to $772.45 million during the same period of the last fiscal year, registering an increase of 13.32 percent.
During last month ie October 2010 remittances from UAE, Saudi Arabia, USA, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman), UK and EU countries amounted to $198.29 million, $187.99 million, $154.35 million, $104.18 million, $96.35 million and $32.44 million, respectively, as compared to $175.22 million, $142.85 million, $154.30 million, $111.36 million, $80.74 million and $23.95 million in October 2009. Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during October 2010 amounted to $81.51 million compared with $69.74 million in the same month last year.
The State Bank, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis had undertaken a joint initiative called Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) with a view to facilitating the flow of remittances through formal channels. This initiative has started materialising and remittances through formal channels are showing considerable growth. Pakistan has been reported as a top country, which has shown the highest growth in the world in remittances despite recent global financial crisis.