Remittances, sent by overseas Pakistanis, dropped by 28 percent in September as compared to August this year.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the remittances inflows in September decreased to $1.45 billion as compared with $2 billion recorded in August. The decline in remittances inflows is being considered as a seasonal factor as the majority of overseas Pakistanis usually send a handsome amount back to their homeland ahead of Eid ul Azha.
The country wise details for the month of September 2018 show that inflows from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) and EU countries amounted to US$ 360.16 million, US$ 301.15 million, US$ 231.21 million, US$ 203.08 million, US$ 133.95 million and US$ 41.1 million respectively compared with the inflow of US$ 308.05 million, US$ 302.77 million, US$ 171.9 million, US$ 194.76 million, US$ 141.02 million and US$ 45.07 million respectively in September 2017. Remittances received from Malaysia, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during September 2018 amounted to US$ 181.78 million altogether as against US$ 130.31 million received in September 2017.
Overseas Pakistani workers remitted $5.41 billion in the first three months (July to September) of FY19, showing a growth of 13.14% compared with $ 4.79 billion received during the same period in the preceding year. The amount of $ 5.41 billion in nearly 25 percent of the values of the remittances projected to be reached at $20 billion by the end of the financial year 2018-19.
In this period, the two major seasons of Eidul Fitr and Eidul Azha were covered in the current financial year. In the next nine months, it is expected that remittances sent by overseas Pakistan will fall between $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion per month.
