Remittances hit four-month low in Sept

Remittances sent home by overseas Pakistanis slowed down to a four-month low at $2.44 billion in September 2022. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reported on Tuesday that the receipts contracted 10.5% in September 2022 compared to inflows of $2.72 billion in the prior month. The remittances were 12.3% lower compared to the same month of previous year when they stood at $2.78 billion. Experts, while citing SBP Governor Jameel Ahmed, said a section of non-resident Pakistanis had apparently opted to send remittances through the open market and unofficial channels (like Hundi and Hawala), as they offered a much higher exchange rate in September this year. As a result, the inflows through official channels faced a setback. The price of the US dollar was higher by Rs10-12 in the open and black markets compared to the rate offered by banks for most of the days in the month. With the cumulative inflow of $7.7 billion in July-September FY23, the remittances decreased by 6.3% as compared to the same period of last year, the central bank said.