KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has reported a 24.2% surge in remittances which has now reached $2.266 billion in February.

As per State Bank, the remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis remained above $2 billion in February for the eighth consecutive month and if June for year 2020 is also counted, it was ninth straight month when Pakistan received over $2bn in monthly remittances.

Seasonal factors such as Ramazan and Eid may have led to a rise in remittances, says Experts.

According to data released by SBP, a large part of remittance flows in July-February 2021 came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US).

In 2020, Pakistan’s total exports during the first seven months stood at $13.896bn which reflected the country’s growing dependence on remittances.

The Covid-19 pandemic has positively impacted on remittances which increased by 24.1 percent during the first eight months of the current fiscal.

Earlier in January 2021, the central bank revised up its projection for remittances to $24-25 billion.

However, country had received record high remittances of $23.10 billion in the preceding fiscal year.