Inflow through the Roshan Digital Account (RDA) clocked in at $141 million in February, a decline of 0.7% as compared to $142 million in January 2024, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Tuesday.

Out of the total amount, $9 million has so far been repatriated, while funds to the tune of $111 million have been utilised locally. The net repatriable liability stands at $21 million.

Meanwhile, cumulative inflows crossed $7.5 billion by February-end.

The central bank shared that total number of RDA accounts opened reached 668,701 from 659,806 a month ago at January-end.

As per the latest data available on the SBP’s website, the cumulative RDA inflow clocked in at $7.478 billion by the end of the previous month, out of which $1.559 billion has so far been repatriated, while funds to the tune of $4.667 billion have been utilised locally.

Consequently, total net repatriable liability stands at $1.252 billion as of February-end.

Out of the total outstanding liability, an amount of $805 million is with Naya Pakistan Certificates, with $304 million in conventional NPCs and $501 million in Islamic instruments.

Similarly, an amount of $392 million is ‘balances in accounts’, the SBP showed.

Meanwhile, Roshan Equity Investments improved monthly and stood at a meagre $32 million.

Background

RDA is a significant source of foreign exchange inflows for cash-starved Pakistan.

The initiative was launched in September 2020 by the SBP and offers up to 8% profit on US dollar investments.

Last year, the central bank in its bid to attract further remittance inflows announced the launch of Diamond Category in the Sohni Dharti Remittance Program.