Overseas Pakistanis sent remittances amounting to $8.98 billion in the first half of 2014-15, which translates into a year-on-year increase of 15.26%, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan yesterday.
Remittances amounted to $7.79 billion over the same six-month period of the preceding fiscal year.
Pakistanis based in foreign countries sent home $1.58 billion last month, which is 19.88% higher than the remittances received in the preceding month of November. Inflows from Saudi Arabia were the largest source of remittances in the first half of 2014-15. They amounted to $2.64 billion in July-December, up 20.24% from the same six months of 2013-14.
Remittances received in July-December from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) increased 25.54% to $1.97 billion on a year-on-year basis. Inflows from the UAE registered the largest increase from any major remittance-sending country during the last six months.
Remittances from the United States and the United Kingdom remained $1.3 billion and $1.16 billion, respectively, in July-December. The year-on-year increase in remittances from the US and the UK has been 4.6% and 2.6%, respectively.
Remittances from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, excluding Saudi Arabia and the UAE, clocked up at $1.03 billion in July-December, which is 15.61% higher than the remittances received from these countries in the same period of the preceding fiscal year.
Remittances from Kuwait in the first six months of 2014-15 equalled $378.42 million while those from Oman, Bahrain and Qatar amounted to $319.66 million, $177.3 million and $162.48 million, respectively.
Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and ‘other countries’ during the last month amounted to $647.28 million, up 26.22% from $512.79 million received in the same months of the preceding fiscal year. In the last fiscal year, overseas Pakistanis sent home $15.8 billion, which was 13.7% higher than the remittances of $13.9 billion received in 2012-13. The monthly average of remittances during the first half of 2014-15 remained $1.49 billion, which was up 15.26% from the monthly average of remittances amounting to $1.29 billion received in July-December of 2013-14.
Remittances in the first six months of the current fiscal year increased regardless of the strong wave of political instability that began in August with sit-ins by opposition parties and fizzled out after the attack on Army Public School in December.
As part of his anti-government protest, PTI chief Imran Khan had urged overseas Pakistanis to abandon formal banking channels by sending money home via hundi, which is the illegal way of transferring currency across international borders.
