FILE PHOTO: An employee counts U.S. dollar bills at a money exchange in central Cairo, Egypt, March 20, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis declined to $2.04 billion in December 2022, the lowest since May 2020, as expatriates stick to unauthorized channels in a bid to fetch a higher exchange rate.
Remittances in December were down 19 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis compared to $2.52 billion reported during the same month of the previous fiscal year (FY22).
On a month-on-month (MoM) basis, the inflows of remittances registered a decline of 3 percent compared to the figure of $2.1 billion reported in November 2022.
The remittance inflows have also posted a decline of 10.8 percent during the first six months of the current fiscal year (6MFY23) compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year. Remittances stood at $14.1 billion during 6MFY23 compared to inflows of $15.8 billion registered in the same period of the previous fiscal year (6MFY22).
A breakdown of the numbers shows that the highest inflows were registered from Saudi Arabia, standing at $516 million, followed by United Arab Emirates (UAE) at $328 million, the United Kingdom (UK) at $314 million, European Union (EU) countries at $233 million, and the United States (US) at $230 million.
It is pertinent to mention here that the black market is offering a much higher exchange rate compared to the one being offered by official channels including commercial banks which is a key reason for the continuous decline in remittance inflows.
