Overseas Pakistanis Send $2.71 Billion Of Remittances In July

Immigrant Pakistanis working around the world sent  $2.71 billion home last month.

According to the report, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said that this is the second-highest level of remittances in the month of July.

Remittances have been more than 2 billion for 14 consecutive months.

“In terms of growth, remittances increased by 0.7 per cent over the previous month and declined by 2.1 per cent over the same month last year,” the SBP said.

The bank said that the slight decrease compared to last year was largely due to Eid-ul-Adha, which resulted in a decrease in working days in July compared to the same month last year.

Last fiscal year, remittances worth $29.4 billion rose to a record 27 per cent, boosting the country’s external account.

The inflow of remittances has enabled the government to cover a huge trade deficit as the import bill has been increasing with each passing month of FY 2021, leaving the current account in surplus at the end of FY 2021.

By the end of the 11 months of the fiscal year 2021, the current account had a surplus of  $153 million. However, there was a huge deficit in June and a current account deficit of 0.6% of GDP.

According to the latest figures released on Tuesday, revenues from Saudi Arabia fell from $821 million in the same month last fiscal year to $641 million.

Imports from Saudi Arabia were the highest in FY 2021, at $7.66 billion, compared to $6.61 billion in FY2021.

SBP data shows that the second-largest remittance of $530 million came from the United Arab Emirates, down 1.4 per cent from the same month last fiscal year. Remittances from the United States rose 24 per cent in July, to $312 million from $251 million in the same period last year.

Remittances from the UK remained flat at 393 million in July compared to the previous fiscal year.