Saudi Arabia is still the largest contributor to home remittances inflows. With 24 percent share in overall home remittances, some $2.567 billion were arrived from Saudi Arabia in first half of this fiscal year against $2.530 billion in the corresponding period of last fiscal year.
The detailed analysis revealed that inflows from two other major corridors of home remittances, ie, USA and UK also witnessed an upward trend during the period under review. Workers' remittances from USA increased by 29 percent to $1.656 billion in July-December of FY19 compared to $1.281 billion in the same period of last fiscal year.
Similarly, inflows from UK surged to $1.533 billion in the first six months of this fiscal year relative to $1.35 billion in the corresponding period of last fiscal year, showing an increase of 13.5 percent. Month-on-month basis, during December 2018, the inflow of workers remittances amounted to $1.69 billion, which is 5 percent higher than November 2018 and 2 percent lower than December 2017.
The country-wise details for December 2018 show that inflows from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) and EU countries amounted to $414.84 million, $341.58 million, $262.83 million, $247.06 million, $171.56 million and $45.62 million, respectively compared with the inflow of $431.97 million, $396.74 million, $234.76 million, $223.30 million, $188.76 million and $54.87 million, respectively in December 2017.
Remittances received from Malaysia, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during December 2018 amounted to $206.69 million together against $193.17 million received in December 2017.