KARACHI: Remittances from Pakistanis living abroad modestly rose by 3% month over month in August but fell by more than 23% annually. However, there was a 21.6 percent decrease in remittance inflow during the first two months of the current fiscal year. According to figures made public by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday, remittances reached a total of $2.092 billion in August, up from $2.029 billion in July.
The preceding fiscal year was the worst for the nation since remittances decreased by $4.2 billion just as the nation was about to enter into sovereign default. The trend of declining remittances persisted in FY23.
The remittances totaled $2.744 billion in August 2022. Due to ongoing political and economic concerns, currency analysts predicted that the trend would last for the first half of the current fiscal year.
Remittances decreased by 21.6 percent between July and August of FY24 and the corresponding period of FY23, falling to $4.121 billion from $5.255 billion.
Additional information reveals that most of the destinations saw a fall in arrivals, with the exception of EU members. When compared to the same period last year, when remittances from Saudi Arabia totaled $1.26 billion, they decreased by 23% to $977 million in July and August.
Remittances from the UK and the US fell by 18 percent and 7.6 percent, reaching $638 million and $503.7 million, respectively.
In contrast to $996.3 million during the same period last year, remittances from the UAE decreased by 37.4 percent, to $623.5 million. After Saudi Arabia, the UAE is the country to which the most remittances are sent. For the economic managers, the significant fall should be very alarming. The Gulf Cooperation Council countries’ inflows declined by 18.8 percent to $472.8 million over the course of the two months (excluding Saudi Arabia and the UAE).
Remittances throughout the two months stayed at $573 million, and inflows from EU nations held steady.
Inflows have not changed despite Pakistan’s outflows of both skilled and unskilled manpower over the past 1.5 years. It is generally accepted that the grey market continues to draw remittances since the substantially higher prices result in losses for the nation.
