Overseas workers remittances jumped to US $ 19.3 billion in last 5 years: Miftah Islamil

ISLAMABAD, Apr 27 (APP):Federal Minister for Finance Miftah Islmail Friday said, Workers’ Remittances of overseas Pakistan had been jumped from $13.9 billion 2013 to $19.3 billion for last five years.
Presenting budget speech, the minister said they expected the Remittances more than US$ 20 billion at end of this year which would be a record for the country.
He further informed that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) had increased to $2.7 billion in FY 2017 from $1.3 billion in 2013.
During the first nine-months of the current fiscal year, it had touched the figure of US $ 2.1 billion as against US $1.9 billion during the same period last year, he added.
Increased FDI reflected confidence of international investors in policies of the present government, he said.
Regarding the Foreign Exchange Reserves (FER), he informed that when the government took office, the foreign exchange reserves had depleted to only US$ 6.3 billion.
These reserves increased to US $19.4 billion by October 2016. However, the increased trade deficit has impacted the build-up of reserves.
Presently, he shared, reserves held with State Back of Pakistan stood at US $11 billion and the fovernment was taking necessary measures to ensure reserve adequacy.