Islamabad
Despite Covid-19, remittance flows rose by about 5.2 percent to South Asia in 2020 to $147 billion, driven by surge in flows to Pakistan and Bangladesh.
According to the latest Migration and Development Brief of the World Bank, remittances rose by about 17 percent in Pakistan, with the biggest growth coming from Saudi Arabia followed by the European Union countries and the United Arab Emirates.
The officially recorded remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $540 billion in 2020, just 1.6 percent below the 2019 total of $548 billion, said the brief.
The remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries surpassed the sum of FDI ($259 billion) and overseas development assistance ($179 billion) in 2020. —TLTP
