$6 billion remitted in eleven months



By Our Staff Reporter


KARACHI, June 16: Overseas Pakistanis remitted about $6 billion during the first eleven months (July-May) of the current fiscal year, showing an increase of 18.3 per cent over the same period last year.

The State Bank of Pakistan on Monday reported that remittances surged by $915.7 million at $5.903 billion during the period under review.

The monthly average remittances for the period came to $536.71 million as compared to $453.46 million in the corresponding period last year.

Pakistani workers remitted $584.75 million in May 2008, up $46.77 million or 8.69 per cent over $537.98 million sent in May 2007.

The total remittances also included $2.36 million received through encashment and profit earned on Foreign Exchange Bearer Certificates (FEBCs) and Foreign Currency Bearer Certificates (FCBCs).

The USA topped with $1,618.46 million remittances during the period under review followed by Saudi Arabia ($1,127.65 million), UAE ($1,002.01 million), GCC countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman ($892.41 million), UK $420.79 million and EU countries $162.66 million.

The country is expected to receive a total of $6.5 billion remittances by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2008 which will help it to meet the record current account deficit.

Ahhhh--same pld policy of Bullocks of relying on ordinary people to send money whereas these cheat politicians and military men keep this country in a state of beggary!!

^^^Military is for defence of the country...they are atleast alot better than you...

Strange...every Pakistani I know is pulling money out of Pakistan. Both my Khalu and father are in Lahore right now pulling out $250K each. 3 of my fathers friends are flying back to do the same thing next week.

These figures seem a little suspect.

Remitance sending to family members and others, plus from other sources as article says. Outflows is usually addressed seperately by the bank.

Ceasar whats up if the aggressive post, which is not related to the article?

Man I am sick and tired of people defending the blunders of our military--it is time to acknowledge that they are no angels and that together with the politicians they are destroying this country though loot and mismanagement, and extremely poor economic policies!!! Why should our country's economy depend upon remittance--why can't it not have sound export oriented economic policies??? I fell extremely sorry for 160 million suffering people of this country living a miserable life and have to go overseas to get some good money!

people talk a lot about democracy,i wonder that if they can survive with out basic necessities i.e food etc and have democracy only??Handing Over country to a thug??so you are saying you are against elections???you don't respect the mandate of people????you can't blame Whole Military for the wrong doing's of just one single person,and yeah they are definately better than you coz they freeze their asses in siachen and burn their asses in deserts so that you don't have to...

Whatever........it is about time someone does something to control military madmen running this country!

My point is your comment is not relevant to thread. Find a relevant thread to discuss. Thats the problem with this forum people hijack threads for their agenda. "Remmitance" is not a pakistani thing, you make it sound like that.

You are very ignorant if you think that Remmitance has nothing to do with Economy, specially the Pakistan economy!! Get some economic lessons first and do some research dude before lecturing people! Chao.

Now were discussing remittance?!

I was responding to your first post because, I seen you have posted similiar ones on other threads. Who are you trying to convince by repeating the same statements?

So??

I am not in the business of convincing anyone--I just lay down what I think.

There are quite a few Pakistanis that I know of, are pulling money out of Pakistan like no tomorrow. Probably in the millions of $s. All the money going to UAE and being invested in property there.

Most probably the money is being transfered through Hawala system.

Please elaborate on the bold part!

There are quite a few Pakistanis that I know of, are pulling money out of Pakistan like no tomorrow. Probably in the millions of $s. All the money going to UAE and being invested in property there.

Most probably the money is being transfered through Hawala system.

The plight of outgoing money from Pakistan is so huge that you will be dumb stuck ...

I too took out my money from Pakistan .. it is a pity but had to do it.

Dont give Ceaser an excuse.

We did it around April. My dad pulled about $250K of investments and some property in our pind. But 2 of my father's friends pulled around $1M together. They told us that a civil war situation, and all the non-residents are pulling out money like no tomorrow. I can clearly see that on the KSE. Yesterday it was 11,800 with the ongoing conditions we will soon have a condition with zero market capitalization. Just have to say one thing "Welcome back to the dark ages"

Well with looters in charge I’m not surprised at the outflow of money via outside investors.

Economic Policies of the past and the present that sees this country and its people as a bunch of beggars always asking for money from Western Bastar-ds and rich Arab a-holes--Policies made by illiterate landlords, or by junky corrupt Bureaucrats, or by moronic politicians like Nawaz and Zardari, or by imports like Shaukat Aziz or by military dictators who forget that they should stick to the country's borders and not poke their dirty noses in our country's economy!!

I said elaborate on the economic policies. Which economic policies caused this and in which era?

Another thread derailed. Typical of this forum. Not blaming one person in particular.

So it looks like USA, Saudi Arabia and UAE account for nearly 70% of the remitted amount with USA being the biggest contributor! Interesting.

Actually, what I believe is that dollar remittance to Pakistan is over $25 billion or so. This remittance is similar to what Pakistan was getting pre 9/11. 9/11 did not increased in dollar remittances to Pakistan at all. Only thing is that, most remittances come to Pakistan using Hundi or other illegal means. Shukat Aziz government made remittance coming through official means more attractive and since official to hundi exchange rate differential was little during his rule, more remittance started coming through official channel and getting recorded. 9/11 helped in increasing official remittance too.

Most remittance that comes through Hundi or other illegal means get used by corrupts to transfer their illegally earned rupee abroad. Though legally earned rupees also buy these dollars and a lot of black economy earnings or earning where tax is not paid also gets converted to dollars and get transferred abroad using hundi remittances.

Remittance from USA is highest because I believe hundi facility in USA is not as good as other countries, plus after 9/11 it is difficult for many to send their remittance from USA using unofficial means.

Carefully watching Pakistan rupee hundi exchange rate can tell a lot about how things are in Pakistan. If rupee in open market seems strong and hundi exchange rate gets closer to official exchange rate than it means corruption has decreased in Pakistan so corrupt rupee is not chasing more dollars than what is available in hundi market. If open market dollars start getting expensive than it means more rupee is chasing hundi dollars and the shortage has increased the value. This chase of dollar in open market could be due to excessive corruption or because people started moving their assets abroad in large number.

Big difference is that, if devaluation happens because of uncertainty and people transferring their legal assets abroad then devaluation would halt as such assets are limited. But if extra transfer is due to increase in corruption then this transfer is unlimited (depending on level of corruption) and thus devaluation would continue. If corruption goes down in Pakistan then there would be less corrupt rupee chasing hundi dollars and that would result in rupee starts getting strong.

I think that Pakistan is a fortunate country in sense that it has huge dollar earnings from remittances and if corruption complete stops in Pakistan, we might see huge revaluation of rupee plus huge increase in reserves (because there would be less rupee chasing dollars in hundi market). To me, Pakistan loses around $20 billion a year due to people transferring their money abroad, especially corrupts.

[My estimate of around $25 billion remittance is based on assumption that there are over 6 million Pakistanis working and living abroad (mostly in Middle East where their main purpose is to work and send money home). Many of them have families in Pakistan. In Pakistan, $300 (Rs 18000) a month is not a big amount to live and it is not big amount for most Pakistanis to send home from what they earn abroad. But some might be sending much more than that, maybe $2000 (Rs 125000) a month. If average sent home is $650 (around Rs 40000) a month (taking one dollar = Rs 62 as that was rate few months back) and assuming that there are around 2.5 million Pakistanis who send money regularly home then it comes to around $20 billion remittance. On top of that, irregular remittance by these 2.5 million Pakistanis who send money home regularly, plus remittances by rest of 3.5 million Pakistanis, plus other transfers to Pakistan using hundi (like resident Pakistanis transferring a bit of their foreign earnings home), could easily be another 15 to 20 billion dollars, though I am assuming that this amount to be around $5 billion dollars, hence the figure of around $25 billion remittance coming to Pakistan every year, using official channel or hundi].

I am sure you know what I am saying, you are not a kid. Chao

I don't know what you are saying. Why don't you simply list all those 'extremely poor economic policies'. Or are you one of those people who like to ridicule rulers like Musharraf, while staying ignorant of all the hardwork that they've done. Enlighten us please! Which extremely poor economic policy are you talking about?

Since you said "simply put" so here it is in simple terms: All MICRO and MACRO economics policies since 1947 to 2008! I hope this helps.

No, it doesn't help. Why don't you be specific?
I said many times initially, and I will say it again: elaborate on the economic policies! What is wrong with them, and be specific. And how are some of these 'extremely poor economic policies' any different than what is used in other successful countries?

I'm starting to get a feeling that you don't even know what the policies are, and want to remain ignorant.

edit:

Okay, lets make this simpler for you (since you are not willing to take the initiative) and discuss the fiscal policy reforms implemented by Shaukat Aziz in FY04, which include: consolidation by raising tax revenues, reducing expenditures, cutting down subsidies of all kinds and containing the losses of public enterprises; tax reforms undertaken to widen tax base, remove direct contact between tax payers and tax collectors, introduce value-added tax as the major source of revenue, simplify tax administration and strengthen the capacity of the Central Board of Revenue. By FY05, this policy resulted in the fiscal deficit declining down to 3.5% (of GDP) from the constant 7% of the 90's.

Now please share with us what it is that is 'extremely poor' about the economic policy above.

Dear Mr Saamp, I don't not have the time nor am I willing to exert efforts on these worthless governments by writing pages and pages of economic policies dsasters since 1947--I suggest if you have time then please enlighten us with any economic achievements (if any) since 1947--I have made a statement and I stick by it!!

The only thing your posts says is that you are incapable of providing proof, most probably because you have none.

I already posted an economic achievement (fiscal policy) in my previous post. Why are you ignoring that? Tell me what is 'extremely poor' about that policy!