Jan-April worker remittances up 26% to $ 1.68 b

The Central Bank said yesterday that during April 2011, workers’ remittances increased by 22.1% to $ 415 million over the same month of 2010, whilst the cumulative figure for first four months grew by 26% to $ 1.68 billion.

The gross official reserves continued to remain above the targeted level and stood at $ 7 billion by end May 2011, without Asian Clearing Union (ACU) balances. Based on the previous 12-month average expenditure on imports of $ 1,339 million per month, the gross official reserves without ACU balances were equivalent to 5.2 months of imports.