DOHA: Indian expatriates totalling almost five million in the oil-rich GCC countries remitted home a staggering $30bn in 2011, while total worker remittances from the region stood at a massive $74.5bn in the year.
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 was estimated at 41.7 million in 2010, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported yesterday citing media reports and World Bank data.
Saudi Arabia ranked first in the volume of remittances from the region, at $28.5bn, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) $18.2bn, Kuwait ($11.8bn), Oman ($7.2bn), Qatar ($6.8bn) and Bahrain ($2.1bn).
However, Qatar Central Bank (QCB) overseas remittance figures for 2011 released earlier showed that the outflow was QR47.5bn, or $13bn.
India topped the list of recipient countries of foreign remittances from the GCC countries with $29.7bn, or 39.9 percent of the overall remittances, followed by Egypt having received $6.9bn (9.3 percent), Pakistan with $6bn (eight 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 $962m (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 percent in 2012 to $514bn, up from $464bn in 2011.
Remittances to the developing world are estimated to have grown by 5.3 percent to $401bn, up from $380bn, QNA said citing reports. The Peninsula
