KARACHI: With $2.5 billion of inflows in December 2021, monthly remittances from overseas workers stayed above the $2bn mark for the seventh straight month, according to the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday.

Remittances in December increased 2.5 per cent on a month-on-month basis while the rise was 3.4pc in annual terms. Cumulatively, remittances grew 11.3pc to $15.8bn in the first half of 2021-22 on a year-on-year basis, the SBP said.

Remittance flows in the latest month were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ($626.6 million), United Arab Emirates ($453.2m), United Kingdom ($340.8m) and United States ($248.5m).

“Proactive policy measures by the government and the SBP to incentivise the use of formal channels and altruistic transfers to Pakistan amid the pandemic have positively contributed towards the sustained inflows of remittances since last year,” the central bank said.

Data for July-November 2021-22 has been revised upwards to reflect inflows into Roshan Digital Accounts (RDA), which are related to local consumption like the payment of utility bills and transfers to local rupee accounts. Since data on these conversions was not previously available by country, these figures were reported under “other private transfers” in the balance-of-payments statistics. Data for December 2021 is also compiled accordingly, it said, adding that the same treatment will take place going forward.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2022