Pakistan received $ 19.6 billion remittances during fiscal year 2017-18, which is equal to over 6% of our GDP, equivalent to over 50% of our trade deficit, 85% of exports and over one-third of imports. Home remittances from abroad therefore play an extremely important role in our economic and fiscal management.
Economic models – the Fed’s and others – suggest that if the federal funds rate target had been held at a fixed level of 5 percent from the fourth quarter of  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  2007 until now, rather than being reduced to its actual target range of 0 to 1/4 percent,1 then the unemployment rate would be several percentage points higher than it is today.