KARACHI, Aug 16: The amount of foreign exchange sent home by overseas Pakistanis fell to $310 million in July 2005 down six per cent from $329.9 million in July 2004, data released by the State Bank show.

Remittances from the US and the UAE declined to $91.3 million and $43.31 million from $104.64 million and $53.07 million respectively.

Bankers say this happened because hundi operators handled more of the remittances than they were previously handling — thanks to the connivance of a few exchange companies that have strong links with them.

Remittances from the UK and Saudi Arabia, however, went up to $33.72 million and $56.63 million from $27.47 million and $54.55 million respectively. The increase in remittances from the UK can be attributed to the July 7 bombings on London subway by terrorists and consequent flight of capital from there to various destinations.

This is also attributable to a 1.9 per cent fall in the value of the pound sterling against the US dollar last month, which increased the value of pound-denominated remittances into Pakistan in terms of dollars.

Remittances from Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar also declined last month but the remittances from Oman improved marginally to $10.32 million from $9.03 million in July 2004.

Remittances from 10 major European Union countries totalled $7.26 million in July 2005 down slightly from $8.02 million in July last year.

Remittances from Canada, however, more than doubled to $5.72 million from $2.38 million. And, remittances from Norway and Switzerland at $1.22 million and $1.18 million also showed some improvement but remittances from Japan fell slightly. Combined remittances of all other countries totalled $27.18 million in July this year, substantially lower than $33.3 million in July last year.

In the last fiscal year, overseas Pakistanis sent home $4.153 billion, 8.5 per cent more than what they had repatriated a year earlier.

Policy makers hope that remittances during the current fiscal year would remain slightly below $4 billion.