Jan-July worker remittances up 25.6% to $ 2.92 b

During July 2011, workers’ remittances increased by 21.1% to $ 415 million over the same month of 2010. Cumulative inflows on account of workers’ remittances amounted to $ 2,922 million during the first seven months of 2011.  

In the first half remittances growth was 26.4% to $ 2.5 billion.

Earnings from tourism grew at a healthy rate of 50% to $ 451 million during the first seven months of the year while total foreign inflows to the Government (including Sovereign Bond proceeds of $ 1 billion) during the same period amounted to approximately $ 2,754 million. Meanwhile, Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the first half of 2011 amounted to $ 413 million.

As per the provisional estimates, gross official reserves, without Asian Clearing Union (ACU) balances, increased significantly to $ 8.1 billion by end July 2011. Based on the previous 12-month, average expenditure on imports of $ 1,421 million per month, the gross official reserves without ACU balances were equivalent to 5.7 months of imports.