This will be a massive year for remittance inflows to Pakistan. Accordingto a recent report on the nation’s economy, Pakistan is expected to receiverecord remittances of up to $28 billion this year, with more than 50% of itto be contributed by overseas Pakistanis residing in Saudi Arabia and theUnited Arab Emirates.
According to detailslinkfroma report by Zawya, Pakistan can expect to cross the milestone of $28billion this year in terms of total remittance inflows to the country. Thisprediction has largely been motivated by governmental and central bankreforms to facilitate overseas workers, which has already started yieldingpositive results despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pakistan received remittances amounting to $14.203 billion during the firsthalf of the financial year 2020-21, which when compared to last year’sgrowth during the same period of $11.37 billion, represents a surginggrowth rate of 24.9 percent. In fact, this is the highest half-yealrygrowth in remittances that the country has witnessed since the financialyear 2006-07.
“This strong growth in workers’ remittances is attributable to theincreased use of formal channels on the back of sustained efforts by thegovernment and State Bank of Pakistan to encourage inflows through officialchannels,” said the central bank in a statement.
Overseas Pakistanis working and residing in Saudi Arabia and the UAEcontinue to be strong contributors to remittance inflows to Pakistan.
Workers residing in Dubai sent 5.6 per cent more money back home, as theyremitted $2.45 billion during the first half of fiscal year 2020-21.Overseas Pakistanis in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah sent $418.4 million and $34.5million in remittances, respectively, showing an increase of 5.6 per centand one per cent.
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Similarly, remittance inflows from Saudi Arabia also recorded a significantincrease during the first half of fiscal year 2020-21. Overseas Pakistanisremitted $3.96 billion, compared to $3.17 billion in the correspondingperiod last year, which represents a growth rate of 24.6 percent.
Aside from the Gulf region, remittances from the United Kingdom and UnitedStates also reached new heights, with the former contributing $1.88 billion(51.7 percent growth over last year) and the latter contributing $1.2billion (47.5 percent growth rate over the previous year).
Considering the fact that December 2020 marked the sixth month in a rowthat remittances flowing into the country crossed the $2 billion marklinkthe course of a month, the nation’s economy can be expected to return topositive growth levels this year.
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