06-03-2006

Pakistan Rejoicing Record Home Remittances

via www.dawn.com

Pakistan is rejoicing over the increasing home remittances sent by its workers abroad which are setting new records now. In the first seven months of the current financial year, remittances of 3-4 million overseas Pakistanis have reached $2.4 billion. These are likely to cross the $4 billion by the end of June. Pakistan is the seventh largest beneficiary of remittances. India receives over $20 billion and that is followed by China and Mexico, which received almost the same amount in 2005, according to a World Bank study. The Philippines comes in the middle with around $15 billion. Lately, the high-income earners abroad have gone in to real estate in Pakistan and made large investments on land and made its prices go sky high. And with the prices of shares on the stock exchange shooting too high, some of the remittances have also gone in to shares and mutual funds.