KARACHI: Workers’ remittances fell by 13 percent during the first ten months of this fiscal year (FY23) as compared to the same period last year, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reported on Wednesday.
According to SBP, cumulatively, Pakistan received inflow amounted to $ 22.74 billion during July-April of FY23 as against $ 26.14 billion in the same period of last fiscal year (FY22), depicting a decline of $ 3.44 billion.
Inflows of home remittance from all major countries except the US witnessed negative growth during the first ten months of this fiscal year. Inflows from Saudi Arabia fell by 17 percent to $ 5.4 billion during July-April of FY23 compared to $ 6.5 billion in the same period of FY22.
Despite the decline in inflows, Saudi Arabia is still ranked at number one position with 23.7 percent share in the overall inflows. During the period under review, remittances from the UK fell by 7.2 percent to $ 3.4 billion. Home remittance inflows from the US slightly rose by $6 million to $ 2.571 billion.
Among other corridors, inflows from UAE declined by 19 percent to $ 4 billion, GCC countries 12 percent to $ 2.66 billion and inflows from EU countries fell by 7.7 percent to $2.5 billion. Monthly inflows of home remittances maintained above $ 2 billion mark; however, in terms of growth workers’ remittances recorded some 13 percent decline in April 2023.
Inflows worth $2.2 billion were arrived during April 2023 as against the highest ever $ 3.124 billion in April 2022, showing a decline of $914 billion. Inflows of workers’ remittances in April 2023 are also less than March 2023, in which $2.536 billion remittances arrived. Remittance inflows during April 2023 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia amounted to $489.3 million, United Arab Emirates worth $382.1 million, United Kingdom $360.7 million and United States of America $275.8 million.
It may be mentioned that Pakistan was receiving over $2 billion monthly inflows since June 2020 and it received the highest ever over $3 billion inflows in April 2022. However, January and February 2023 were two months in which inflows were below $2 billion because of uncertainty in the currency market and massive difference in the exchange rate in the interbank market and black market.
The unofficial cap on exchange rate was removed, of which the exchange rate was raised to Rs 269 against a dollar as on Feb 13, 2023 compared to Rs 230 as on January 26, 2023. With the improvement in the exchange rate, home remittances posted some growth. In addition, the Ramzan and Eid inflows also help to get higher inflows in March 2023.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023