Pakistanis sent US$5.61bn home from Gulf

Overseas Pakistanis remitted US$5.61bn from Gulf countries between July and March 2012, compared with US$4.62bn during the same period a year earlier, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has said. Saudi Arabia and the UAE were the biggest sources of remittances in the world during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, with US$2.65bn and US$2.14bn sent home from these countries, respectively. Money remitted from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman topped US$1.10bn for the period, more than the US$273m sent from EU countries, but less than that from the US ($1.72bn) and UK ($1.13bn).