Expat remittances up 7%

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 24: Remittances of expatriate workers in Kuwait have increased by 7.2 percent to reach $7.31 billion (KD 2.2 billion) in the first half of this year compared to $6.82 billion remittances sent in the same period last year. Thereby, Kuwait comes third among the Gulf countries with the highest rate of remittances sent by expatriate workers after the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, reports Al-Anba daily.

According to statistics compiled by the Gulf central banks, the remittances of expatriate workers in the GCC countries except Oman rose by 4.8 percent in the first half of this year, reaching $57.71 billion, compared to remittances of $55.05 billion sent in the first half of last year.

The UAE recorded the highest value of remittances of expatriate workers, reaching $23.9 billion in the first half of this year, which is an increase of 12.7 percent. Saudi Arabia was second in terms of remittances of expatriate workers with $18.95 billion, which is a slight increase of 0.06 percent.

Despite the start of the countdown of 2022 FIFA World Cup hosted by Qatar and its need for more workers to implement its projects, remittances of expatriate workers from Qatar during the first half of this year fell by 15.8 percent compared to last year.

The data reveal that the value of remittances from Qatar in the first six months of this year amounted to $5.78 billion, which represents a fall compared to remittances of $6.86 billion sent in the first half of last year.

Bahrain had the lowest rate of remittances reaching $1.77 billion in the first half of this year, compared to $1.24 billion in the same period last year, which is an annual growth of 43.1 percent.

Meanwhile, according to official data from the Central Bank of the Republic of the Philippines, Filipino workers in Kuwait remitted a total of $443 million (KD 134.5 million) in the last eight months of this year. This is a decrease of 20 percent compared

to $553.8 million (KD 168.2 million) remitted during the same period last year.

In August, the remittances of Filipino workers increased, reaching $61.1 million (KD 18.6 million). This is a monthly increase of 97 percent compared to the transfer of $31 million (KD 9.4 million) last July.

The month of July saw the lowest overall value of remittances due to the crises faced by the Philippine workers during this period. However, when the crisis significantly fizzled out, things returned to normal and the rise in remittances was noticeable.

In the first quarter of this year, the remittances of Filipino workers underwent fluctuation and instability following some statements issued by the President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte. Things returned to normal after an agreement was reached in early May concerning the employment of Filipino domestic workers in Kuwait. The annual remittances of Filipino expatriates in Kuwait reached an average of about $800 million.

According to the Central Administration of Statistics, the total number of Filipino workers in Kuwait is 242,100, out of which 68 percent work in the family sector or are domestic workers. Filipinos in Kuwait account for 6.4 percent of the total Philippine nationals working overseas. Most of the Filipinos in Kuwait work in the service and sales sectors.

Furthermore, Saudi Arabia topped the Gulf countries in terms of the value of remittances sent by Filipino workers, which reached $1.54 billion during the last seven months of this year. This indicates an annual decline of 11.8 percent.

This is followed by the UAE with remittances sent by Filipino workers reaching $1.34 billion, which is an annual decline of 19.4 percent. Qatar came third with remittances of $680 million, which is annual decline of 10.4 percent, while Kuwait came fourth in the region.

The value of remittances from the Sultanate of Oman dropped by 38.2 percent to reach $154.6 million in the last seven months of this year compared to $250 million sent during the same period last year.

Remittances from Bahrain dropped by 19.7 percent to reach $128.5 million in the first seven months of 2018, compared to $160 million during the same period last year.