Daily Times

The overseas workers’ remittances posted a decline of 11 percent during first seven months (Jul-Jan) of fiscal year 2022-23 as the remittances fell from $17.98 billion in Jul-Jan of FY22 to $16.01 billion in the period under review.

On year-on-year basis, the overseas workers’ remittances recorded an inflow of US$1.9 billion in January 2023, posting a decrease of 13 percent as compared with the same month of previous year’s inflow of $2.18 billion.

On month-on-month basis, the remittances in January 2023 also witnessed a decline of 9.9 percent when compared with the inflow of $2.1 billion recorded in December 2022.

According to a recent data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday, remittances’ inflows during January, 2023 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ($407.6 million), United Arab Emirates ($269.2 million), United Kingdom ($330.4 million) and United States of America ($213.9 million).

During the corresponding month, the overseas Pakistanis living in Bahrain sent $35.7 million, from Kuwait $59.0 million, from Qatar $72.7 million whereas $76.1 million were dispatched from Oman.

Similarly the inflows from Germany, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and Ireland were recorded at $47.6 million, $35.3 million, $4.3 million, $34.3 million, $65.6 million, $21.9 million, $6.3 million, $6.5 million, $7.7 million and $10.0 million respectively.

Likewise, from Malaysia, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, and Japan, the workers dispatched $6.0 million, $9.7 million, $3.3 million, $47.1 million, $37.6 million, and $5.5 million respectively.

Remittances from South Africa during the month under review stood at $13.8 million while that from South Korea stood at $8.5 million. Similarly $58.1 million were received from other countries. Moreover,ambassador of Korea to Pakistan Suh Sangpyo here on Monday said that in 2022, about 2,000 Pakistani workers found employment in Korea through the Employment Permit System (E9).

The ambassador appreciated that Pakistani workers were getting more jobs in Korea under the Employment Permit System (E9) (EPS). He said that his embassy would cooperate to further expand the EPS project in the future, said a news release issued by the embassy.

To support the Employment Permit System (E9) project, the embassy donated five units of computer equipment (scanners) that can be used in various ways, such as passport scanning, to the sending country (OEC) free of charge, he added.