Pakistan posts 13.1% remittance decline in Jan

Pakistan’s remittances declined for the fifth consecutive month in January, clocking in at $1.9 billion, data shared by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed on Monday, reports Dawn.

This equates to a slump of 13.1 per cent compared to last January’s $2.2bn. On a month-on-month basis, remittances decreased by 9.8pc. In December, remittances amounted to $2.1bn.

The highest inflows were received from Saudi Arabia ($407.6 million), followed by the United Kingdom ($330.4m), the United Arab Emirates ($269.2m) and the United States ($213.9m). Remittances from other Gulf countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman — amounted to $243.6m while $239.6m was received from European states.

Bankers and currency experts had been warning that the artificially low dollar rate in the interbank market could cost the country heavily. The worst part of the low interbank dollar rate was the emergence of a very strong grey market that started attracting remittances.