Remittances down 4% in Q1

Cash remittances by UAE-based expatriates declined by around four per cent to nearly Dh8.8 billion in the first quarter of 2011 because of current turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Total remittances by the dominant expatriate labour force stood at nearly Dh36.7 billion through 2010, the second largest in the region after those from Saudi Arabia, the Arabic language daily Emarat Alyoum said.

“During the first quarter of this year, remittances stood at around Dh8.8 billion, which is nearly four per cent below their level in the first quarter of 2010,” it said, quoting Fouad Abbas, director of Lari Exchange. “Tensions in MENA have had a limited impact on financial transfers by expatriates in the country.”

Recent official estimates showed foreigners in the UAE accounted for more than 80 per cent of the country’s total population of over eight million. The bulk of them are concentrated in the private sector, the second largest in the Gulf after Saudi Arabia, where transfers exceeded $30 billion in 2010.

Most of the UAE-based expatriates are from India, Pakistan, Philippines, Bangladesh, and other Asian and Arab nations.

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