Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month/Remittances increase

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Remittances soar over 41 % to reach record $ 580.24 mln in Oct.
Saturday, November 17, 2007

KARACHI (APP) - Home remittances have surged by 41.31 percent or $ 169.63 million to reach a record $ 580.24 million in October, 2007 as against $ 410.61 million in the same month last year.

According to SBP data here Saturday, the previous highest amount remitted in a single month was recorded in May 2007, when Pakistanis sent $ 537.98 million.

Pakistan received an amount of $ 2.082 million in the first four months (July-October 2007) of the current fiscal year 2007-08, showing an increase of $ 437.29 million or 26.60 percent over the same period of the last fiscal year.

The amount includes $ 0.67 million received through encashment and profit earned on Foreign Exchange Bearer Certificates (FEBCs) and Foreign Currency Bearer Certificates (FCBCs).

The monthly average remittances for the period July-October, 2007 comes out to $ 520.37 million as compared to $ 411.05 million during the same corresponding period of the last fiscal year, registering an increase of 26.60 percent.

The inflow of remittances into Pakistan from most of the countries of the world increased last month as compared to October, 2006. **According to the break up, remittances from USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman), UK and EU countries amounted to $169.91 million, $ 97.43 million, $ 95.92 million, $ 85.00 million, $ 44.59 million and $ 15.90 million, respectively as compared to the corresponding receipts from the respective countries during October 2006, i.e. $ 109.89 million, $ 59.88 million, $ 75.41 million, $ 58.14 million, $ 36.22 million and $11.88 million.

Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during October, 2007 amounted to $71.45 million as compared to $59.15 million during October, 2006.**

The inflow of remittances in the July-October, 2007 period from USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman), UK and EU countries amounted to $ 590.81 million, $ 390.91 million, $ 334.82 million, $ 302.14 million, $ 164.50 million and $ 60.68 million, respectively as compared to $ 421.76 million, $ 318.20 million, $ 250.70 million, $ 231.61 million, $ 138.45 million and $ 48.31 million respectively in the July-October, 2006 period.

Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during the first four months of the current fiscal year 2007-08 amounted to $ 236.96 million as against $ 234.15 million in the same period last year.

Associated Press of Pakistan

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

This is one massive advantage of Pakistani emigration. This adds up to about 7 billion dollars a year, that is a huge amount of money. over the coming years, this will increase.

this is how we can best help the nation. everyone who leaves pakistan, for whatever reason, should send money back to help the cycle of wealth.

FaceboOk H0as Gotten Abit bOriing Soo ii Decided tO cOme Back Here Lol
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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

That's amazing progress made under the Musharraf govt. Before he came to power in 1999 remittances were only around 1 or 1.5 billion dollars a year, mainly because Nawaz Sharif decided to loot the foreign currency acccounts. The fact that foreign remittances have climbed to an impressive $7 billion dollars a year under Musharraf is another unprecedented economic achievment.

Goodbye ghairat
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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

Well this isnt exactly something he can claim credit for. Post 9/11 our people have felt uncomfortable with large sums sitting in accounts.

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

No no people were so impressed with Musharraf that they sending more money home. :rotfl:

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

Musharraf era was also associated with mass exodus.

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

Yet another post without thinking only to praise Mushy :rotfl:

Timepass
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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

Bhai, you are wrong. Fact is that remittance has not gone up, corruption money that use to chase dollars has gone down. Remittances were same, but the problem was that none use to see Pakistan treasury. Corrupts use to use corruption money to buy those dollars from open market and use to send them to their foreign accounts. That is why during those days, open market dollar rate was 5 to 10 percent more than official rate, and today they are same because corruption money chasing dollars in open market has decreased substantially. Plus, value of dollar that increased from 90 percent during Zia 11 years, 300 percent during BB and NS rule, has only increased 10 percent during last 8 years (mostly during first two years of Musharraf rule).

As for other things, many do not realise that when NS was ousted, Pakistan had foreign debt of around 38 billion dollars (actually it was over 50 billion dollars, but NS froze dollars account and forced people to convert their dollars into rupees as official rate, and the result was that Pakistan rupee loan increased to 1700 billion.

When Musharraf took over, Pakistan was paying around 4 billion dollars in only interest on dollar loans and Rs 25 billion as only interest on rupees loan. In last 8 years Pakistan paid around 30 billion dollars interest on loan Pakistan took before Musharraf came to power.

Today, Pakistan external loan is around 40 billion dollars and reserve is over 16 billion dollars. That after paying 30 billion dollars interest on loans taken by previous governments. That happened without increasing debt burden of Pakistan.

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

Expats from China, India, BDesh, S.Lanka, Mexico, Romania, Poland, El Salvador, Honduras, Columbia, etc. etc. etc. do exactly the same. They all send money home to help out their loved ones and in the process move the much needed F. exchange to their countries.

Pakistani expats would have done even better, had they not got bitten with Palestinian anarchist bug.

So many of them were kicked out of their adopted countries just because they had all that Islamic fervor driving them mad!

Anyways this thread is about sending home the money. May God bless all those who are helping Pakistan and Pakistanis to send that money home. We should praise the countries who allow Pakistanis to work, and we should praise Pakistanis who work their tails off to create wealth. More power to them. Amin!

p.s. This thread is not about President Musharraf, so let's not drag this one into anti-Musharraf rants. As we do have 1000 other threads open for such rants. Thank you!

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

people talk about aid from u.s. being a big deal but over the last couple of years, pak has recieved around $10bn from remittances compared to around $2bn from uncle sam. and yet opponents of the government look to america for salvation even though u.s. has very little leverage on pak economy. in fact i would argue that real friends of pak like saudis and china backs the govt very strongly and their support is equally as important as uncle sam's.

Please welcome Innocent Smile as your new poetry forum mod
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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

Yes brother, and no one even think that during last 8 years Pakistan paid over 30 billion dollars in interest alone on dollar loans taken by past corrupts (before Musharraf period). Meanwhile Pakistan charged USA for their extra military expenses and whatever aid USA gave during last 8 years comes to less than 10 billion dollars (actually it is around 6 to 7 billion dollars as 10 billion dollars includes money that USA may give Pakistan in future).

No one even talks about 17 billion dollar Pakistan reserves when they talk about American money that comparatively peanuts. No one talks about Pakistan external trade (import and export) that today is around 35 billion dollars a year. No one talks about FDI in Pakistan that is reaching around 10 billion dollars a year. It seems that people needle is stuck on what Pakistan got from USA during last 8 years and would come in future, most of that is due to Pakistan charges to USA for USA using Pakistani facilities and no one should call that aid, but fair foreign earnings of Pakistan.

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

you are completely correct. when mush came to power, debt was around $35bn with cash reserves of < $1bn. 8 years later, debt is $40bn and reserves stand at $16bn,

as for the $10bn aid amount, that is about as correct as the reports in american press on wmd's hidden in saddam basement. the fact that pakistanis take the $10bn number at face value is an indication how much we still slaves to the words of goras. most pakistanis simply cant believe that wpost or nytimes can lie even after watching the unfolding of iraq war campaign.

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

Yea brother, but the main thing that many Pakistanis could not understand and surprises me most is that that no one mentions that since Musharraf came to power, Pakistan paid over 30 billion dollars interest on loan that Musharraf inherited from past crooks. It was this interest on past loans that was real cause of increasing loans and at many times in past took Pakistan to the brink of bankruptcy. It was 4 billion dollars a year that Pakistan needed to pay without even decreasing existing loan or getting anything out of that.

Past governments used to take new dollar loans to pay interest on past loans. And that means, if present government had taken dollar loans to pay interest on past loans than Pakistan external debt would have kept increasing at the rate of around 10 percent a year, or today it would have become over 80 billion dollars without Pakistan taking any loan for other purposes.

It is big achievement of Musharraf that Pakistan kept servicing past debts from current earnings and kept national dollar debt stagnant (did not let it increase substantially).

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

The Romanian dictator Ceausecu held a referendum in to approve a constitutional ban on accepting any more national debt. He paid of 13 billion in debt over the next 8 years. The economic squeeze hurt ppl so much that they over threw and shot him when he had almost paid it off in1989. The usurper Mush just paid of the interest.

The point is that even doing good things for the country does not absolve a dictator who is illegitimate.

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

get your facts straight then come back, thanks. Just for the "army operation against militants" Pakistan has received $5.3 billion ($80 million per month), check other articles in this very forum... Pakistan has received around $10-11 billion so far.

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

koozager, you cant use examples that just suit your viewpoint. there are plenty of examples of countries in europe, latin america and asia that spent large period of time under military dictatorship and emerged much stronger after military rule. best example of a military strongman who turned his country into an economic powerhouse is south korean military dictator park chung hee. park came to power in early 1960’s when korea was an economic basket case like pakistan was at that time. park ruled south korea for nearly twenty years and by the time his rule ended, korea was well on its way to achieving a developed country status. currently south korea has gdp per capita of around $18,000 while pak has gdp per capita of around $1,000. in early 60s, the number was less than 100 for both countries. overall, military rule lasted in korea for around 30 years. you can argue that during this period, indians were better off than koreans were because indians had “democracy” but that would be your opinion. in my opinion its self evident as to which country is better off today. funnily enough, like musharraf, park helped americans in the unpopular war in vietnam for which he got a lot of flak domestically:

http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990823/park1.html

"…At the end of a long silence, I asked Park if he ever compared himself to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. The President shifted his heavy gaze to the questioner, contemplating him as a rattlesnake might look upon a mouse. After a pause, he replied, “I do not know much about Kemal Pasha, but I would like to do for Korea what he did for Turkey–make it economically strong and militarily secure.”…

as for debt management under musharraf, that is evidence of implementation of sound financial policies. if musharraf government had gone along the route taken by democratic governments, than pak rupee would have been trading around PKR100/$ instead PKR61/$. you should be able to calculate the impact on purchasing power of average pakistani should the rupee have depreciated as it did in the 90s.

as for musharraf being like a communist dictator, can you point out how many independent papers were published in eastern europe and the names of opposition parties that existed in the communist block??

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

WRONG… USA has given $10 billion already.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=ax7A1jmNQy1w&refer=asia

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

i can point to plenty of articles in wpost and nytimes that indicated saddam had advanced weapons development program. does not mean that he did.

as for u.s. aid to pak, i dont have to rely on third party sources. according to u.s. government’s own website, aid to pak amounts to $600mn per year.

“…During President Musharraf’s visit to the United States in 2003, President Bush announced that the United States would provide Pakistan with $3 billion in economic and military aid over 5 years. This assistance package commenced during FY 2005…”

all spending programs of u.s. govt has to be approved by u.s. congress. if the aid provided to pak is more than indicated above, then bush administration is comitting a felony. you can take bush admin to court if you have evidence to show that aid transferred to pak more than amount permitted by congress.

u.s. is also paying pak for the cost of operation in the tribal areas. that amount cannot be classified as aid because army operation that pak is conducting is not being fought using bows and arrows. cost of fuel, ammunition etc is initially bourne by pak army which is later reimbursed by the u.s. government. the amount u.s. is paying pak is peanuts when you compare how much would it cost for the u.s. army to conduct such an operation.

also the $10-11bn amount you quote is over 6 years and this includes cost of army operation. in comparison, remittances from abroad have totalled around $10bn over last two years. you should verify your own facts before accusing others of lying.

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

here is an article in dawn which breaks down the u.s. aid to pakistan:

http://www.dawn.com/2007/04/16/ebr3.htm

How critical is US assistance?

By Dr Ishrat Husain
…The US economic and military assistance to Pakistan since September 11, 2001 has come in four main forms (a) debt relief (b) military assistance (c) economic assistance (d) emergency relief assistance. In addition, the US . has been reimbursing in dollars the expenditures incurred by Pakistan in supplying logistics services to US troops in Afghanistan.

Although normally this reimbursement should not be considered part of any aid package, it has been so included in this analysis for the sake of comprehensiveness. If this broader definition of US assistance is accepted, then the next step is to calculate the quantum of this assistance.

In FY 2002, the US provided debt relief of $600 million and in FY 2003 used Economic Support Fund of $186 million to retire bilateral US debt of $1 billion. Between FY 2004-2007, the US has provided budgetary support of $800 million under Economic Support Fund. In addition it also funded (a) development assistance (b) Child Survival and Health Programme and (c) PL 480 Title II in the amount of $530 million. The US is committed to further $600 million in FY 08 and FY 09 under economic assistance.

Under Earthquake relief and reconstruction the US has provided $105 million and has committed to allocate an additional amount of $200 million for reconstruction in the AJK and NWFP.

The military assistance that has been received so far is approximately $900 million with further commitment of$600 million in the coming two years. Finally, the US has been reimbursing Pakistan at $80 million a month for the logistic services provided to the US troops in Afghanistan since 2002. This amount aggregates to $4.8 billion in all and is shown under the services account in the current account balance. This amount is in actual fact, payment for expenditures that Pakistan has been incurring out of its own resources in rupees and is not included in any standard definition of “aid”. But we have included the reimbursements as aid in order to address the arguments raised by the proponents of “Pakistan dependent upon US” theory.

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Re: Pak expatriates sending nearly $600 million a month back home

show me what "fact" was wrong in my post.... and you already stand corrected for your claim of $2 billion only.