Pakistan received record remittances of more than $31 billion during the fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22), a growth of 6.1 percent over FY21, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
The SBP stated remittances in June FY22 were 18.4 percent more than the last month, presenting an increasing trend. But, remittances in June were just 2 percent higher than in the corresponding month in FY21.
Foreign Pakistanis remitted $2.761 billion in June FY22 against Rs 2.332 billion in May, an increase of $429 million. Regardless of severe problems on the external account caused due to rising trade and current account deficits, foreign Pakistanis maintained their trust as a proof of solidarity with their country.
Moreover, the country has been getting more remittances than it has been exporting. FY22, though, saw that the exports and remittances were nearly at the same position with a little difference in the amount. Pakistan received record remittances of $31.761 billion.
Read more: Overseas Pakistanis remitted $2.3 billion in May and record $28.4 billion in 11 months
As per the provisional data, the country’s exports rose by 27 percent and stayed at $31.85 billion in FY22, against $25.16 billion reported during the same period of 2020-21.
The country’s exports posted an increase of 10 percent on a month-on-month (MoM) basis, rising from $2.63 billion in May to $2.89 billion in June.
The trade deficit, on the other hand, reached a new high of $48.67 billion, a 57 percent growth. In FY21 the trade deficit was $30.96 billion.
The inflows of remittances are much essential to fill the record trade gap, which cannot be reduced in spite of tall claims of banning a number of items for imports.
Further details reveal that the greatest amount of $7.743 billion was remitted from Saudi Arabia, with a slight growth of 0.2 percent against $7.726 billion last year.
However, the inflows from the UAE dropped by 5.2 percent to $5.842 billion. The remittances from the UK, in FY22, increased to $4.487 billion against $4.091 billion.
The United States remitted $3.082 billion against $2.599 billion in FY21, an increase of 18.5 percent.
Similarly, inflows from GCC countries increased 8.7 percent to $3.622 billion.
The highest growth was observed in the inflows from the EU countries, reaching $3.361 billion in FY22.
