ISLAMABAD, Feb 16 (NNI): Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday thanked overseas Pakistanis for responding so strongly to State Bank of Pakistan’s Roshan Digital Accounts by sending 500 million dollars in just five months.

In his latest tweet, he said 87,833 accounts were opened from 97 countries around the world and the momentum continues to rise with 243 million dollars coming in last six weeks alone.

On Monday, the PM took to the twitter said that remittances from overseas Pakistanis were $2.27 billion in January 2021, which were up by 19% as compared to January 2020.

Imran Khan said the remittances remained above $2 billion for eighth consecutive month, up by 24% to date in this fiscal year as compared to the last. This is a record for our country and I thank our overseas Pakistanis, he added.

The premier also shared good news from the industrial sector which showed sustained growth. Large scale manufacturing saw another double digit growth month in December 2020 – 11.4% growth vs Dec 2019, he said while adding that cumulative July to December growth is above 8% now.

According to a data released by the State Bank of Pakistan, the inflow of workers’ remittances in to the country witnessed 19 percent increase in January 2021, as compared to same month of the previous year.

The remittances remained above $2 billion for 8th straight month as during the corresponding month, the inflow was recorded at $2.3 billion as compared to the inflow of $1.907 billion in January 2020.

On average, the remittances surged by 24 percent during July-January (2020-21) from $13.28 billion in Jul-Jan (2019-20) to $16.476 billion in same period of the current fiscal year.

The country wise detail shows that the highest inflows came from Saudi Arabia as Pakistan received $553 million during the month as compared to $531.6 million in January 2020 and $624 million in December 2020.

From UAE, the country received $492.5 million in January 2021 against the inflows worth of $463.5 million in same month of last year.

The overseas Pakistanis living in USA dispatched $203.2 million as compared to $148.8 million in January last year, whereas from UK, the workers’ remittances were recorded at $303 million against the $201 million.

Similarly the cash inflow from European Union countries jumped from $142 million in January 2020 to $228.8 million in January 2021.

From other GCC countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman, the inflows also increased to $271.2 million as compared to $260 million in January 2020.

From Australia the workers’ remittances inflow jumped by about around 89 percent as it increased from $27.4 million to $51.9 million in the corresponding month of current year.

Likewise workers’ remittances in the corresponding month from Malaysia, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, and Japan stood at $14.9 million, $8.5 million, $4.3 million, $47.6 million, and $6.2 million, respectively. NNI