Increase in remittances good news for economy: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has expressed that remittances from overseas Pakistanis increased last month, terming it good news for the economy.

While expressing good news for Pakistan’s economy, the prime minister took to Twitter and wrote that the remittances reached the highest ever amount in one month in the history of the country.

More good news for Pak economy. Remittances from overseas Pakistanis reached $2,768 mn in July 2020, highest ever amount in one month in the history of Pakistan. This is 12.2% increase over June 2020 and 36.5% increase over July 2019.

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 17, 2020

According to the prime minister, this is a 12.2 percent increase over June 2020 and a 36.5 percent increase over July last year.

Last month, overseas Pakistanis sent home record remittances in the fiscal year 2020 (FY20), totalling at $23.12 billion and reflecting a surge of 6.4 percent. Foreign remittances also shot up almost 7.8 percent during the four months of the coronavirus pandemic including March, April, May, and June and subsequent lockdown specifically.

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Year-to-date (YTD), however, overseas Pakistanis sent in remittances worth $2.46 billion. It is important to note that remittances during June 2020 were 50 percent higher than the comparable period in 2019, $2.47 billion as opposed to $1.64 billion.