During the last fiscal year (FY20), Pakistan has earned all-time high inflows of over $23 billion in home remittances.
As per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), cumulatively, workers’ remittances increased to a historically high level of $23.121 billion during FY20 compared to $21.739 billion during FY19, witnessing a rise of some 6.5 percent or $1.3bn.
Similarly, in the last month (June 2020) of FY20, workers’ remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis also posted a significant increase of 51 per cent. Workers’ remittances in June 2020 hit record high amount of $2,466 billion, compared to $1,636 billion in June 2019.Inflows of workers’ remittances recorded a 7.8 percent rise over the March-June 2020 Covid-19 pandemic period compared to the comparable 2019 period.
SBP stated that a number of factors can be attributed to the significant increase in remittances during June 2020. Because several of the countries eased the lockdown in June, Pakistanis from overseas were able to move accumulative funds which they could not send earlier. Therefore, they are also suspected to have sent remittances attributable to COVID-19 to help extended families and friends.
Furthermore, efforts by the Pakistani government and SBP have played a role in the increased inflow of workers’ remittances during the FY20 period in general, and Covid-19 period, in particular March through June 2020.
Pakistan also received remittances from workers amounting to $4.1 billion, up 26 percent from the US and with a slight increase from the UK in the last fiscal year of 1.56 percent to $3.4 billion.
In June 2020, Saudi Arabia collects higher sums of workers’ remittances amounting to $619.4 million, US$452 million, UAE$431.7 million, and UK$401 million, up 42.0 percent, 7.1 percent, 33.5 percent, and 40.8 percent, respectively, compared to May 2020.
