The volume of money remitted by foreigners working in GCC countries reached SR279.4 billion ($74.5bn) in 2011, local media said quoting the latest report released by the World Bank. The number of foreign workers in the GCC countries stood at 15.1 million at the end of 2010, representing 36.3 percent of the GCC’s total population, which is estimated at 41.7 million in 2010, the report said. Saudi Arabia ranked first in the volume of remittances within the GCC countries, at $28.5bn in the same year, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at $18.2bn, Kuwait ($11.8bn), Oman ($7.2bn), Qatar ($6.8bn) and Bahrain ($2.1bn). India topped the list of recipient countries of foreign remittances from the GCC countries with $29.7bn, or 39.9 percent of overall remittances, followed by Egypt having received $6.9bn (9.3 percent), Pakistan with $6bn (8 percent), the Philippines with $5bn (7.6 percent), Bangladesh with $3.1bn (4.1 percent), Sri Lanka with $2.7bn (3.6 percent), Nepal with $1.9bn (2.4 percent), Yemen with $1.2bn (1.6 percent) and Jordan with $962 million (1.3 percent), the report said. Qatar ranked first in having the highest percentage of foreign workers compared to the national population, where foreign residents reached 1.3 million, or 76.8 percent of the population, which stood at 1.7 million by the end of 2010, followed by the UAE with 3.3 million foreign residents (63.1 percent), Kuwait with 2.1 million (58.6 percent), Oman (32.8 percent), Bahrain (28.5 percent), and Saudi Arabia (26.4 percent), the report said. Indians constituted the largest segment of foreign workers. They were 4.9 million, or 32.2 percent of total workers, by the end of 2010, followed by Pakistan with 2.0 million (13.1 percent), Egypt with 1.6 million (10.8 percent), Yemen with 955,900 (6.3 percent), and the Philippines 934,800 (6.2 percent), the report said. Last April, a World Bank report said global remittance flow increased 10.77 per cent in 2012 to $514 billion, up from $464 billion in 2011. Remittances to the developing world are estimated to have grown by 5.3 per cent to $401 billion last year, up from $380 billion, the report said. Remittances to developing countries are expected to grow at an annual average of 8.8 percent for the next three years and are forecast to reach $515 billion in 2015, the report added.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 09:45:29 +0000
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