KARACHI: With an inflow of $2.5 billion during December 2021, the workers’ remittances continued their strong impetus of remaining above $2 billion since June 2020.
In terms of growth, remittances increased by 2.5 percent month-on-month and 3.4 percent year-on-year in December 2021, said statement issue by State Bank of Pakistan here Friday. Cumulatively, at $15.8 billion, remittances grew by 11.3 percent during the first half of fiscal year 202-22 over the same period last year. The remittance inflows during December 2021 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ( $626.6 million), United Arab Emirates ($453.2 million), United Kingdom ($340.8 million) and United States of America ($248.5 million).
Proactive policy measures by the government and SBP to incentivize the use of formal channels and altruistic transfers to Pakistan amid the pandemic have positively contributed towards the sustained inflows of remittances since last year. During July-November of the current financial year, the data of workers’ remittances has been revised upward to reflect inflows into Roshan Digital Accounts (RDA) that are related to local consumption such as payment of utility bills, transfer to local PKR account, etc. Since data on these conversions was not previously available by the country, these were reported under ‘other private transfers’ in the balance of payments statistics. December 2021 data is also compiled accordingly, and this treatment will be followed going forward.