Saudi Arabia, UAE biggest contributors as Pakistan receives over $29 billion in remittances

A Pakistani man walks past the currency exchange shop in Lahore, Pakistan, on January 3, 2018. (AFP/File)

• The rise in remittance inflow has been attributed to the government’s ‘proactive policies’ and ‘curtailed cross-border travel’ due to COVID-19
• Pakistan’s central bank says the growth in remittance inflows has improved the country’s ‘external sector position’ despite the global pandemic

ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates once again emerged as top contributors to Pakistani workers’ remittances that soared to a historic annual high of $29.4 billion in the last fiscal year, the State Bank of Pakistan announced in an official statement on Tuesday.
“Remittance inflows during FY21 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ($7.7 billion), the United Arab Emirates ($6.1 billion), the United Kingdom ($4.1 billion) and the United States ($2.7 billion),” the central bank said.
Last month alone, the country recorded a remittance inflow of about $2.7 billion, making June 2021 the thirteenth consecutive month that witnessed an influx of over $2 billion.
According to the central bank, the rise in remittances has “helped improve the country’s external sector position despite the challenging global economic conditions in the past year.”
“Remittances registered a substantial 27 percent growth in FY21 over last year, and the fastest rate of expansion since FY03,” it added.
The government has already maintained the growth in remittances has been fueled by its “proactive policy measures” since it “incentivized the use of formal [banking] channels.”
Other factors helping the process include “curtailed cross-border travel in the face of COVID-19 infections, altruistic transfers to Pakistan amid the pandemic, and orderly foreign exchange market conditions,” the statement noted.