Remittances rise 31.78pc to $780.5 million

Friday, September 11, 2009

KARACHI: Pakistani workers living abroad sent home record remittances of $780.53 million in August 2009, showing a jump of 31.78 percent over same month last year, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday. This is the second consecutive month that record remittances have come into the country. In July an amount of $744.85m was received. SBP insists that it s Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI), which was launched recently to bring remittances into the formal loop, has started to show result. But there are no credible data available to substantiate that claim. During the first two months July-August of fiscal year 2009-10, an amount of $1.525bn was sent home by overseas Pakistanis, showing 25 percent rise when compared with $1.219bn received in the same period last year. The monthly average remittances for the period July-August 2009-10 comes out to $762.69m as compared to $609.76m during the same corresponding period of the last fiscal year, registering an increase of 25 percent. Pakistanis living abroad sent home record $7.811 billion during financial year 2008-09, beating the previous annual high of $6.451bn transferred a year before. Remittances have become lifeline for the economy at a time when country s reliance on international lenders has increased to meets its foreign debt liabilities. Industry people offer varied reasons for the increase in remittances. Some say it is a repercussion of global recession, which has cost many expatriates to lose their jobs and now they are transferring their savings back home. But there is no evidence of this happening. On the other hand, bankers say government s action against two big exchange companies has weakened the hawala dealers.....

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