Remittances continued their unprecedented streak of staying above $2 billion for a record 13th consecutive month. In June 2021, inflows of around $2.7 billion were recorded with a 9% year-on-year growth.
Seasonal pre-Eid inflows have helped to further boost remittances levels during June. On a cumulative basis, remittances rose to a historic annual high of $29.4 billion. This has helped improve the country’s external sector position despite the challenging global economic conditions in the past year. Remittances registered a substantial 27% growth in FY21 over last year, the fastest rate of expansion since FY03.
Read More: Remittances amount to $2.5bn, 33.5pc higher than May 2020
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) tweeted this development and said, ‘On a cumulative basis, remittances rose to a historic annual high of $29.4 billion in FY21. This has helped improve the country’s external sector position despite the challenging global economic conditions in the past year.’
Remittance inflows during FY21 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ($7.7 billion), United Arab Emirates ($6.1 billion), United Kingdom ($4.1 billion) and the United States ($2.7 billion).
Overall, record-high inflows of workers’ remittances during FY21 have been driven by proactive policy measures by the government and SBP to incentivize the use of formal channels, curtailed cross-border travel in the face of COVID-19 infections, altruistic transfers to Pakistan amid the pandemic, and orderly foreign exchange market conditions.
