Remittances grow by 14.1% in October, witness 26.4% upward trajectory in four months

ISLAMABAD: The workers’ remittances mounted to $ 2.3 billion during October 2020, showing an increase of 14.1 percent during the month under review when compared to October 2019.

This is for the fifth consecutive month that workers’ remittances remained above $2.0 billion to October 2020, according to latest figures released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

A large part of year-on-year increase in October 2020 was sourced from Saudi Arabia (30 percent), United States (16 percent) and United Kingdom (14.6 percent).

Improvements in Pakistan’s FX market structure and its dynamics, efforts under the Pakistan Remittances Initiative (PRI) to formalize the flows and limited cross-border travelling contributed to the growth in remittances, the SBP added.

Meanwhile, during the first four month (July-October) of the current fiscal year (2020-21), the workers’ remittances increased to $9.4 billion, recording a growth of 26.5 percent over the same period last year.