Pakistan Records Highest Increase in Remittance Inflows Since October 2021

Remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis increased by 13.4 percent year-on-year (YoY) to $2.4 billion in December 2023 compared to inflows of $2.1 billion registered in the same period last year, according to the data on remittances released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday. According to Arif Habib Limited (AHL), this is the highest increase reported since October 2021. On a month-on-month (MoM) basis, the inflows in December 2023 increased by 5 percent over inflows of $2.3 billion registered in November 2023. A breakdown of the numbers shows that the highest inflows were registered from Saudi Arabia, coming in at $577.5 million, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at $419.15 million, the United Kingdom (UK) at $368 million, European Union (EU) countries at $284.95 million, and the United States (US) at $263.87 million. During the first six months (July-December) of the fiscal year 2023-24 (6MFY24), remittances stood at $13.4 billion, down 7 percent YoY compared to remittances of $14.4 billion registered in the same period last year.