Foreign exchange sent home by Pakistanis rise by 16pc

Workers' remittances or the foreign exchange sent back home by Pakistanis living abroad rose by 16 per cent to $669 million in July-August 2004, from $577 million in July-August 2003, data released by the State Bank show.

Overall remittances rose as Pakistanis living in the US and the UAE sent much higher amounts of foreign exchange back home in the first two months of this fiscal year than they had in a year-ago period. See chart.

This big increase in workers' remittances, and that too on the back of higher inflows from two main centres indicate that the remittances may cross the $4 billion mark during the current fiscal year, leaving the initial estimate of $3.5 billion far behind…