The inflows of home remittances rose to $9 billion, up by 12 percent, during the first five months of this fiscal year (FY19). The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Monday reported that overseas Pakistani workers remitted $9.028 billion in July to November of FY19 compared with $8.021 billion received during the same period in the preceding year, showing a growth $1.007 billion.
Saudi Arabia is still the largest contributor to home remittances inflows. With 24 percent share in overall home remittances, some $2.152 billion were received from Saudi Arabia in first five months of this fiscal year against $2.098 billion in the corresponding period of last fiscal year.
The detailed analysis revealed that inflows from two other major corridors of home remittances, ie, USA and UK also witnessed an upward trend during the period under review. Workers' remittances from USA increased by 33 percent to $1.393 billion in July-Nov of FY19 compared to $1.046 billion in the same period of last fiscal year.
Similarly, inflows from UK surged to $1.286 billion in the first five months of this fiscal year against $1.127 billion in the corresponding period of last fiscal year, showing an increase of 14 percent. Month-on-month basis, during November 2018, the inflow of worker's remittances amounted to $1.608 billion, which were some 19.58 percent less than October 2018 and 2 percent higher than November 2017.
The country-wise details for November 2018 show that inflows from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) and EU countries amounted to $395.12 million, $343.21 million, $255.78 million, $228.19 million, $151.37 million and $42.18 million, respectively, compared with the inflow of $409.52 million, $352.64 million, $204.28 million, $213.47 million, $191.83 million and $49.06 million, respectively in November 2017.
Remittances received from Malaysia, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during November 2018 amounted to $192.74 million together against $155.92 million received in November 2017.