Money sent home by overseas Pakistanis touched the $4 billion-mark for the first time in March, soaring by 37% compared with the same month last year, mainly owing to a stable foreign exchange rate.
Remittances in March reached $4.05 billion compared with $2.95 billion during the same month in the previous year, according to State Bank of Pakistan data released on Monday.
During the nine months of the current fiscal year, remittances shot up by 33% to $28 billion compared with $21 billion of the same period last year.
The share of UAE and Saudi Arabia in overall remittances was around 46%, up from 41% in the same period a year ago. They amounted to $12.589 billion — up from $8.753 billion — showing a jump of 44%, the data said.
The State Bank of Pakistan has revised the full fiscal year remittance target to $38 billion compared with earlier estimates of $36 billion. In remaining three months of the current fiscal year, the country needs $10 billion to achieve the target, i.e. averaging around $3.3 billion per month.
Inflows of remittance also helped surpass the foreign exchange reserves target of $13 billion by end-June. Now, the SBP expects that reserves would reach $14 billion.
Remittances from Saudi Arabia in March were up by 40% to $987 million, by 54% to $842 million from UAE, by 48% to $684 million from the U.K., and by 13% to $419 million from the U.S.
