The World Bank revealed in a recent report that the US and the Gulf countries, namely UAE and Saudi Arabia, are among the top countries in terms of worker remittances.
Officially recorded remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $540 billion in 2020, dropping slightly by $8 billion in 2019, it said.
Remittance outflow was the biggest in the United States ($68 billion), followed by UAE ($43.2 billion), Saudi Arabia ($34.6 billion), Switzerland ($28 billion), and Germany ($22 billion).
India received over $83.1 billion in remittances in 2020, while China received $59.5 billion followed by Mexico ($42.8 billion), the Philippines ($34.9 billion), Egypt ($29.6 billion), and Pakistan ($26 billion).
In 2021, remittances to the region are likely to grow 2.6 percent before they drop again to 2.2 percent in 2022, said the report.
Personal remittances from expatriates in Saudi Arabia increased by 15 percent to SAR14.05 billion ($3.75 billion) in March 2021, up from SAR12.2 billion ($3.36 billion) in the same period last year.
Worker remittances in Saudi Arabia increased in March by 24.3 percent to SAR11.3 billion ($3.01 billion), according to the Saudi Central Bank data.
They also grew by 10.5 percent in Q1 of 2021 and reached SAR37.4 billion ($9.97 billion), while residents in the Kingdom transferred a total of SAR33.8 billion ($9.03 billion) abroad during Q1 of 2020.
