Imran Khan thanks overseas Pakistanis for sending record $2b remittances over eight straight month

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced on Monday that the remittances from Pakistani workers employed abroad remained above $2 billion for 8th straight month as during the corresponding month, the inflow was recorded at $2.3 billion as compared to the inflow of $1.907 billion in January 2020.

Following the SBP's release of data, Prime Minister Imran Khan thanked the overseas Pakistanis for ensuring that the country reported remittances over $2 billion for the eighth consecutive month.

"Remittances from overseas Pakistanis were $2.27 bn in January, up 19% over Jan 2020 — 8th consecutive month of remittances above $2b," said Imran minutes after the SBP shared the news.

"This is a record for our country and I thank our overseas Pakistanis,” he tweeted. Imran Khan said the industrial sector also showed good result with sustained growth.

Alluding to the industrial sector, the Prime Minister said it is also showing sustained growth. He said large scale manufacturing saw another double digit growth of 11.4 per cent in the month of December last year. He said the cumulative growth of the sector during the first six months of current fiscal year is above eight per cent.

"Large scale manufacturing saw another double digit growth month in December 2020 - 11.4% growth vs Dec 2019,” he said. The cumulative growth from July to December was recorded above eight percent," he added.

Pakistan received $2.3 billion worth of remittances last month, up by 19 per cent as compared to January 2020. However, remittances slightly decreased as compared to $2.4 billion in December 2020.

On cumulative basis, workers’ remittances reached $16.5 billion during Jul-Jan FY21, registering 24 per cent increase over the corresponding year of last year.
From UAE, the country received $492.5 million in January 2021 against the inflows worth of $463.5 million in same month of last year.

The overseas Pakistanis living in America dispatched $203.2 million as compared to $148.8 million in January last year, whereas from UK, the workers’ remittances were recorded at $303 million against the $201 million.

Similarly the cash inflow from European Union countries jumped from $142 million in January 2020 to $228.8 million in January 2021.

From other GCC countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman, the inflows also increased to $271.2 million as compared to $260 million in January 2020.

From Australia the workers’ remittances inflow jumped by about around 89 per cent as it increased from $27.4 million to $51.9 million in the corresponding month of current year.

Likewise workers’ remittances in the corresponding month from Malaysia, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, and Japan stood at $14.9 million, $8.5 million, $4.3 million, $47.6 million, and $6.2 million, respectively.

NNI News Service