Half of remittances from UAE go to India
Nearly half of annual individual overseas money transfers from the UAE are towards India. In 2014, individual remittances from the UAE to India -- the largest receiver of remittances in the world -- rose to between $12 billion and $15 billion. This figure is not inclusive of export earnings, foreign direct investment and foreign institutional investments, according to Sudhir Kumar Shetty, president of the UAE Exchange. The UAE is the host to 2.65 million Indian migrants.
In the UAE, which is home for over 200 nationalities, mainly eight countries -India, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Yemen -- together accounted for $26.607 billion of the total remittance of $29.25 billion. Remittances from Kuwait and Qatar were $12 billion and $9.5 billion respectively, while smaller transfers were made out of Oman and Bahrain, a report said. Around 25 million expatriates live in the GCC states -- almost equal to the native population.
India received $70.39 billion in remittances from across the world in 2014. That is ahead of China, which got $64.14 billion, and more than all the remittances received by the Philippines, Mexico and Pakistan combined. The Philippines ($28 billion) came third, followed by Mexico ($25 billion) and France ($25 billion).
According to the World Bank,
in 2014, total global remittances were $583 billion. US led the sending markets with $131 billion transferred out, followed by Saudi Arabia ($45 billion), the UAE ($29.6 billion), the UK ($25 billion) and Germany ($24 billion). The World Bank estimates that the six GCC countries transferred $102 billion in 2014, mostly to South Asian nations of India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The amount is estimated at 6.2 per cent of the combined gross domestic product, or GDP, of the GCC states at $1.6 trillion. According to a report by Kuwait Financial Centre, the outbound GCC remittance figure was twice as high as remittances in 2010, reflecting a steady growth.