Inflows of workers'' remittances, sent by overseas Pakistanis, posted a healthy increase of 16 percent during the first month of this fiscal year. According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), overseas Pakistani workers remitted $ 1.542 billion in the first month (July) of FY18 as compared with $ 1.328 billion sent during the same period in FY17, depicting an increase of $ 214 million.
The inflows of workers'' remittances arrived in July 2017 are 16 percent less than June 2017, while some 16 percent more than July 2016. The detailed analysis revealed that a major surge was observed from all major corridors, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, US and UK. Inflows of workers'' remittances from US moved up by 14.16 percent to $ 194 million during the first month of this fiscal year compared to $ 169 million in the same period of last fiscal year.
Similarly, inflows from UK increased to $ 199 million in July 2017 against $ 144 million in July 2016, up by 38 percent. With 8 percent surge, inflows from Saudi Arabia stood at $ 408 million in July compared to $ 379 million in the same period of last fiscal year. The country-wise details for July 2017 show that inflows from UAE, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) and EU countries amounted to $ 334.63 million, $ 192.02 million and $ 52.08 million, respectively compared with the inflows of $ 293.72 million, $ 169.61 million and $ 35.74 million, respectively in July 2016.
Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during July 2017 amounted to $161.22 million together against $137.13 million received in July 2016. The SBP is expecting that going forward this decline in inflows from Saudi Arabia is expected to be compensated by a gradual pick up in inflows from other GCC countries.