First time in 3 years: Monthly remittances fall below $2b level for Jan 2023

Remittances from Pakistanis living abroad in January 2023 fell below the $2 billion mark for a single month for the first time nearly three years as global recession impacts overseas Pakistanis.

Data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan on Monday showed that remittances for the first month of the calendar year, January 2023, clocked in at $1.894 billion.

Last time when Pakistan received remittances less than $2 billion for a month was in May 2020 when $1.865 billion was remitted to Pakistan by workers overseas.

Further, the remittances received in January 2023 were down by 9.9% from December 2022, when remittances stood at $2.1 billion.

By contrast in January 2022, Pakistanis living abroad had sent home some $2.2 billion, a difference of 13%.

With remittances accounting for a major source of forex revenue of Pakistan, the country saw its overall quantum of remittances for the fiscal year 2022-23 shrink by 11% from $18.0 billion between July - January in fiscal year 2022 to $16 billion for fiscal year 2022-23.

It was even less than the $16.453 billion which was remitted to Pakistan in the same period in Fiscal Year 2021.

According to the data released by SBP, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where a majority of Pakistanis live and work, had remitted the most money.

Around $407.6 million were remitted by Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia and another $269.2 million from the various emirates in the UAE.

The biggest drop in contribution came from Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia, who had sent around $530.4 million in December 2022. By comparison last year, Pakistanis sent around $548.9 million in January 2022, a decline of 15.1%.

However, Pakistanis living in the United Kindom remitted the second highest amount of funds, around $330.4 million.

Pakistanis living in other Gulf countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar sent home around $243.6 million. It was up from $4240.5 million sent in December 2022.

It was followed by Pakistanis living in the European Union who remitted $239.6 million. This was only slightly down compared to December 2022, when $239.9 million was remitted.

Pakistanis living in America sent only $213.9 million. This was down from $243.6 million sent in December 2022. However, it was up by 2.8% from $211.9 million sent during the same period in 2022.