Pakistan registers 10pc decline in inflow of foreign remittances

Pakistan registers 10pc decline in inflow of foreign remittances

KARACHI: Pakistan has registered around 10 per cent decline in inflows of foreign remittances during first five months (July – November) of current fiscal year.

According to data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday, the inflows of workers remittances declined to $12 billion during first five months of the current fiscal year as compared with $13.29 billion, showing a decrease of 9.7 per cent.

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Experts in financial markets said that overseas Pakistanis were reluctant to send money due to prevailing uncertain exchange rate. Besides, many overseas Pakistanis have option to send their money through informal channels in order to get better exchange rate.

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The interbank foreign exchange market closed at PKR 224.71 to the dollar on Wednesday December 14, 2022. Whereas, the dollars are not available in the open market and if available the exchange rate has gap of PKR 20 to PKR 30 comparing interbank rates.

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A sharp decline of 14.23 per cent in inflow of remittances has been recorded in November 2022, when the country received $2.11 billion as compared with $2.46 billion in the same month of the last year.

Similarly, the remittances witnessed a decline of 4.52 per cent on Month on Month (MoM) basis as the country received $2.21 billion in the month of October 2022.

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