KARACHI: Remittances in the first eight months of this fiscal year rose to $12.8 billion, showing a year-on-year growth of 3.4 per cent.

Despite the continuous fall in remittances from Saudi Arabia, the overall remittances increased with the help of UK and United States as both registered high growth.

According to the State Bank’s latest data issued on Friday, the remittances from Saudi Arabia fell by 8.7pc to $3.26bn. Saudi Arabia still provides highest remittances to Pakistan despite thousands of Pakistanis having lost their jobs in the last couple of years. From July-February FY17, remittances from Saudi Arabia fell by 6.8pc, reflecting the impact of job losses in the kingdom.

The highest increase was noted from Britain as the remittances grew by 23.2pc to reach $1.786bn during the eight months of 2017-18. The inflows from United States also witnessed a sizable growth of 12.2pc to stand at $1.7bn in the same period.

Both the counties helped Pakistan maintain a much-needed inflow to meet the increasing foreign exchange demand for the galloping current account deficit.

The country is facing a serious threat at its external front as the trade deficit has been increasing each month while the foreign investment and remittances are not enough to counter it.

The country’s foreign exchange reserves have been declining each week and recently fell to a record low since FY15. The total foreign liquid reserves currently stand at $18.32bn compared to $18.7bn in FY15.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2018