Pakistan received a record-shattering $23 billion in the form of remittances in 2019-2020. Remittances in June also rose year-on-year to $2.466 billion, a gigantic rise of 51 percent. All of this was reported by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday.
While the coronavirus pandemic was expected to reduce them, the March-June period helped boost the remittances to new heights. Workers remittances increased significantly in June to produce a new record of $2.466 billion. Instead of a contraction that was expected by the government, an increase of 7.8% was observed. The breakdown of the data saw Saudi Arabia lead the way in both yearly and monthly remittances, with an increase of 42% and 6.8% respectively. Total inflows from UAE came second with $4.662 billion. The highest growth in terms of percentage was observed from the USA, which saw a growth of 25% to reach $4.163 billion. On the negative side, inflows from Malaysia dropped by 8%.
The SBP attributed the increase in June to multiple factors, including the easing of lockdown in various countries and the addition of zakat due to the month of Ramadan. The SBP also played its role, by providing incentives to those who remitted money.
