By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Pakistan’s remittances, one of the country’s main sources of foreign currency, fell 6.3 percent to $7.7 billion in the first quarter year-on-year due to the impact of looming recession on global economy, central bank data showed on Tuesday.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data showed that the country had $8.2 billion in July-September period of the last fiscal year.
Remittances dropped to $2.4 billion in September, 12.3 percent down from a year earlier. Monthly, remittances decreased by 10.5 percent.
Analysts said an exchange gap between the interbank rate and open market also impacted remittances from banking channels.
The difference between dollar-rupee exchange rates in both currency markets increased to 10.12 rupees in recent months.
“When the kerb rate is significantly higher than the official rate, remittances start routing from unofficial channels. The difference has narrowed now which will reroute them to official channels,” said Samiullah Tariq, the head of research at Pak-Kuwait Investment Company.
The amount of money Pakistani citizens living in Saudi Arabia send home fell 9.8 percent to $1.88 billion in July-September FY2023.
Remittances from the United Arab Emirates declined 8.7 percent to $1.46 billion. These inflows sourced from the United Kingdom stood at $1.08 billion, compared with $1.13 billion last year. Remittances from the European countries fell 8 percent to $829 million in July-September FY2023.
However, Pakistani diaspora living in the US transferred $817 million in the first three months of the current fiscal year, which was 7 percent higher when compared with $763 million in the corresponding period last year.
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