Remittances rise to $6.44bln in July-Oct

KARACHI: Remittances grew 2.2 percent to $6.44 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal 2017/18, the central bank said on Thursday. 

Overseas Pakistanis remitted $6.3 billion in the July-October period of the last fiscal year, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said. Workers’ remittances amounted to $1654.45 million in October, depicting a rise of 28 percent as compared to the previous month and an increase of 5.99 percent over October 2016.

In October, inflows from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, gulf cooperation council (GCC) countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman and European Union amounted to $461.07 million, $333.57 million, $215.64 million, $270.46 million, $184.76 million and $51.12 million, respectively. 

Remittances from these countries stood at $470.19 million, $358.38 million, $183.26 million, $173.4 million, $183.13 million and $35.36 million, respectively, in October 2016.   The SBP recorded remittances from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries at $137.83 million in October as against $157.30 million in October 2016.