KARACHI - Overseas Pakistanis remitted an amount of $10,876.99 million in the first ten months (July 2011 – April 2012) of the current fiscal year 2011-12, showing an impressive growth of 20.23 percent or $1830.38 million when compared with $9,046.61 million received during the same period of the last fiscal year (July- April 2011), said State Bank of Pakistan here on Thursday.

Bank said remittances received from all countries of the world showed growth during the first ten months of the current fiscal year. The inflow of remittances during July-April 2012 from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) and EU countries amounted to $2,987.86 million, $2,386.26 million, $1,922.35 million, $1,263.67 million, $1,226.61 million and $304.59 million respectively compared with the inflow of $2,085.80 million, $2,091.33 million, $1,677.88 million, $990.92 million, $1,063.49 million and $290.77 million respectively in July-April 2011.
Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during the first ten months of the current fiscal year (July-April 2012) amounted to $785.65 million as against $846.36 million received in the first ten months of the last fiscal year (July- April 2011), bank added.
Bank said monthly average remittances for July-April 2012 period comes out to $1,087.70 million as compared to $904.66 million during the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, registering an increase of 20.23 percent. Last month, an amount of $1,141.02 million was sent home by overseas Pakistanis, up by 10.73 percent, compared with $1,030.43 million received in the same month of 2011. Almost all of this growth in remittances during April, 2012 over the corresponding period of the last fiscal year was through banking channels.
In April 2012, the inflow of remittances from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) and EU countries amounted to $332.43 million, $245.33 million, $198.00 million, $131.82 million, $127.12 million and $31.14 million respectively compared with the inflow of $263.80 million, $232.05 million, $186.83 million, $111.39 million, $115.37 million and $35.04 million respectively in April 2011.
Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during April 2012 amounted to $75.18 million as against $85.94 million received in the same month (April 2011) of the last fiscal year. SBP said the continued impressive growth in workers’ remittances is the result of the efforts made by PRI in collaboration with other stakeholders to facilitate both overseas Pakistanis and their families back home.
It may be recalled that in order to provide an ownership structure in Pakistan for remittance facilitation, the Government of Pakistan through State Bank of Pakistan, Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and the Ministry of Finance had launched a joint initiative called Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) in April 2009. This initiative has been taken to achieve the objective of facilitating & supporting faster, cheaper, convenient and efficient flow of remittances.