KARACHI: Remittances showed a slight increase of 1.5 per cent to $6.44 billion in the first four months (July-October) of this fiscal year compared to $6.30bn in the same period last year.

A State Bank of Pakistan announcement on Thursday said the inflow of workers’ remittances in October jumped 27.87pc to $1.6bn compared to $1.29bn in September.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which were the top and second largest source of remittances, respectively, maintained falling trend in the month under review.

Inflows from the Saudi kingdom dipped almost 2pc year-on-year to $461.07m in October, while Pakistanis working in the UAE sent back home $333.57m, a fall of 6.9pc when compared with $358.38m were remitted in October 2016.

Remittances from the United Kingdom, which is the third biggest in the list of countries, surged almost 56pc to $270.46m against $173.40m in October 2016.

Inflows from the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman -- however registered a slight increase to $184.76 in the month under review compared to $183.13 in October 2016.

Pakistanis working in the United States remitted $215.64m, a 17.66pc more when compared with $183.26m in October 2016, to their homeland.

A 44.5pc growth was recorded in the combined remittances from the EU countries to $51.12m in October.

From Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan etc a total of $137.83m was received as against $157.30m in October 2016.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2017