KARACHI: Pakistan reported a decrease of $4 billion in remittances sent by overseas Pakistan in fiscal year 2023, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.
The country received a total of $27.024 billion in remittances during FY23 against a record $31.278 billion in FY22, a decline of 13.6 or $4.254 billion.
Worker remittances slightly increased by 4 percent to $2.183 billion month-on-month in June while it witnessed a 22 percent decline compared with $2.8 billion remittances received in corresponding month last year.
Remittances inflows during June 2023 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ($515.1 million), United Kingdom ($343.0 million), United Arab Emirates ($324.7 million) and United States of America ($272.3 million).
The largest inflow was from Saudi Arabia but it also fell by 16.9 percent to $6.445 billion in FY23. The remittances from the UAE witnessed a contraction of 20.5 percent to $4.468 billion.
Remittances from all important destinations noted a decline except the United States which recorded a slight growth of 0.1 percent to $3.09 billion in FY23. The inflows from the United Kingdom dipped 9.7 percent to $4.056 billion.
The inflows from GCC fell by 12 percent to $3.191bn and EU countries declined by 7 percent to $3.12 billion during the outgoing fiscal year.
The remittances witnessed a decline due to the government’s effort to keep the dollar at lower than actual rates hit the inflows through banking channels.
The government uncap the exchange rate under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and immediately the dollar jumped to Rs269. The greenback reached Rs299 in the interbank on May 11 but remained most of the time in the range of Rs280-290.
