"Predictions being made about the Pakistani rupee touching 38 or 40 against the dirham remain possibilities. We have seen many times that regulators intervened but of late there has not been regulatory intervention and the currency is falling constantly. It is quite possible that the Pakistani rupee can get to 35 to 40 in 2019," Giriyan said.

He also pointed out that the US dollar in great demand is one of the key factors in the weakness of Asian currencies.

"The flip-side is that whenever the rupee goes down, there is an unblocking of money, especially from the white-collar perspective, who have larger disposable incomes. So we see that there will be major impetus in remittances. When Asian currencies go down, there is a natural phenomenon that remittances go up."

"A blue-collar worker who remits $300 to $400 a month can't hold back because their families depend on those remittances. But white-collar workers have a tendency to wait; they don't have an urgent need to remit. In times of currency depreciation, white-collar workers tend to take advantage, hence, we see major surge in remittances. We typically see about a 15-20 per cent increase in remittances during the holy month of Ramadan compared to other months. And 4-5 days before Eid, we see a different level of remittances altogether," he added.

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