Lebanon's remittance inflow reaches $5.5 billion in 2007

22 August 2008

BEIRUT: The World Bank indicated that inward remittance inflow into Lebanon reached $5.5 billion in 2007, up by 6.2 percent from $5.183 billion in 2006 and by 11.7 percent from $4.924 million in 2005, according to the 2008 edition of the "Migration and Remittances FactBook."

Bank Audi's Weekly Monitor, which published the report, said that the flow of remittances into the country has been on an upward trajectory from the year 2000 and until 2004.

The trend was interrupted in 2005 when remittances went down by 11.9 percent, but remained relatively high, only for it to resume its upward slope in 2006 and 2007.

The compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of those remittances over the period 2000-2007 is at 23.1 percent.

Lebanon's remittances are the 16th highest among 192 countries observed in the study. It came in directly after Morocco ($5.7 billion), Egypt ($5.9 billion), and Indonesia ($6.0 billion). On the other hand it directly surpassed Poland ($5.0 billion), Vietnam ($5.0 billion), and Serbia and Montenegro ($4.9 billion).

Remittances are an important source of external funding for the Lebanese economy as they constitute a large portion of investment in the country.

Most of these remittances are channeled toward paying for basic necessities such as food, clothing, education and medical examinations.

More recently, a large fraction of this money is being used to buy land and houses, especially that most of the remittances received by Lebanon are from expatriates who wish to return to Lebanon one day and thus want a home in the country.

Most of the first- and second-generation Lebanese who left the country permanently have little contact with their families in Lebanon and therefore send little if any money to Lebanon.

The World Bank distinguishes between a migrant and an immigrant, noting that the former leaves his country to work abroad but eventually comes back, while the latter leaves and never comes back..

The report noted that 17.4 percent of the Lebanese population migrated to work abroad with the top five destination countries being the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany and Saudi Arabia.

Lebanon has the 15th highest migration rate in the world and the second highest among 14 Middle East and North African (MENA) countries.

As for the ratio of Lebanese immigrants to the country's total population, the figure is at around 18.4 percent, the 30th highest rate worldwide and 10th highest in the MENA region.

Among the 14 MENA countries included in the report, Lebanon ranked third in terms of remittances received, following Egypt, which ranked first with a total of $5.9 billion in remittances and Morocco with $5.7 billion.

Lebanon came in ahead of Jordan and Algeria with $2.9 billion in remittances, Tunisia with $1.7 billion, and Yemen with $1.3 billion.

Lebanon's remittances constituted 19.3 percent of inward remittances into the region as a whole, with the latter reaching $28.5 billion in 2007.

As a percentage of GDP, Lebanon had the highest share of remittances among its regional peers of 22.3 percent in 2007. - The Daily Star