Pakistan receives $2.71b remittances in July

Dubai - 14th consecutive month to receive more than $12 billion remittances.

Overseas Pakistanis continued to remit record money over $2 billion for the 14th consecutive month in July, the first month of new financial year 2021-22.

According to latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), non-resident Pakistanis remitted record $2.71 billion last month, second-highest ever level of remittances reported in the month of July.

“In terms of growth, remittances increased by 0.7 per cent over previous month and showed a decline by 2.1 per cent over the same month last year. This marginal year-on-year decline was largely on account of Eid-ul-Adha, which resulted in fewer working days this July compared to last year,” the SBP said on Tuesday.

Pakistan received record $29.4 billion remittances during the financial year 2020-21 compared to $23 billion it received during the financial year 2019-20. The government has set $31 billion in remittances for the present fiscal year of 2021-22.

Remittance inflows during July 2021 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ($641 million), UAE ($531 million), United Kingdom ($393 million) and the US ($312 million).

“Proactive policy measures by the Government and SBP to incentivise the use of formal channels, curtailed cross-border travel in the face of Covid-19, altruistic transfers to Pakistan amid the pandemic, and orderly foreign exchange market conditions have positively contributed towards the sustained improvement in remittance inflows since last year,” according to the central bank.

-- muzaffarrizvi@khaleejtimes.com