Pakistan received a record-high $4 billion in workers remittances in March 2025, 37% more than the remittances received in March 2024.
Analysts have attributed the surge in remittances, announced a day earlier by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmed, to Ramzan/Eidul Fitr.
Also on Monday, Ahmed told the Gong Ceremony at the Pakistan Stock Exchange that the country is expecting to receive $4-5 billion of foreign exchange inflows before June 30, 2025. This, he said, would boost the country’s foreign exchange reserves to more than $14 billion. Consequently, he said, the central bank has revised upward its foreign exchange reserves target to $14 billion for June 2025. Previously, the SBP had set $13 billion as its target for reserves.
Similarly, the central bank has revised upwards its target for remittances this fiscal year from $36 billion to $38 billion on the back of a sustained increase from overseas workers. Due to this, the current account is expected to remain in surplus for the rest of this fiscal year. An analyst of Topline Securities has estimated that the current account for FY25 will yield a surplus of $1.24 billion, or 0.3% of GDP.
According to SBP data, total payable debt for FY25 was $26 billion of which $16 billion was to be rolled over or refinanced. Of the net repayable of $10 billion, the central bank has already paid $8 billion.