Marginal dip in expat remittances

“We don’t expect much of a jump in remittances in 2019, but we are hopeful that we will see a slow increase in the expat remittances in 2019,” added Subudhi.

R Madhusoodanan, General Manager of Global Money Exchange, also admitted, “There has also been a marginal decrease in remittances sent from Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi expats.”

For example, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWS) in Oman have sent home nearly US$200 million in 2018, according to a report published by the Central Bank of the Philippines. Data from the report showed that OFWs in the Sultanate sent remittances worth over $175 million (OMR67.4 million) from January-September 2018.

This represented a 35.1 per cent decline over the same period last year, when the total amount remitted was over $270 million (OMR104 million). The decline, which is the largest in the GCC, has been replicated across the Gulf. In Kuwait, remittances by OFWs during the same period dropped by 19.1 per cent, whereas in Qatar, remittances fell by 12.3 per cent.

In Saudi Arabia, OFWs sent home over $1.6 billion (OMR620 million), yet those figures were still 12.3 per cent lower than the same period last year. Meanwhile, in the UAE, remittances fell by 19.9 per cent. The decline in remittances in the GCC was replicated across the Middle East region, where the amount of money OFWs sent home fell by over 17 per cent.

Jaimes Delgado, a 35-year-old OFW, said, “I think this has happened because of the oil crisis and the employment ban. Here in Oman, we used to send more, but now, we are sending about half. Many Filipinos are also facing salary delays, making it more difficult to send money home. Now, many Filipinos prefer to work in other foreign countries. The United States, Australia, New Zealand and the UK are the preferred destinations.”

Data from the Central Bank of the Philippines highlighted Delgado’s point. While remittances fell in the Middle East, OFWs sent even more money home from Europe, the United States, and other parts of Asia. In Europe, remittances rose 8.6 per cent to more than $3 billion (OMR1.15 billion). Remittances from OFWs in the Americas rose 9.1 per cent to $8.3 billion (OMR3.2 billion), with over $7 billion (OMR2.7 billion) of that amount sent from the United States, which also registered a 5.3 per cent rise in OFW remittances. Asia, excluding the Middle East, saw remittances from OFWs rise 13 per cent to $4.3 billion (OMR1.66 billion). OFWs in Japan provided the largest of that figure, sending home $1.1 billion (OMR420 million).

Another Filipino expat, Dem Salas of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, said, “Once the contract of an OFW expires, some opt not to renew it, and instead, decide to seek a better job and look for greener pastures in another country.”

OFWs were not the only ones sending less money home. According to some exchange houses, Indians and Pakistanis were sending lower amounts of remittances as well.