Expat remittances in Saudi jump 15% to $3.73bln in March

RIYADH — Personal remittances of expatriates in Saudi Arabia increased by 15 percent to SR14.05 billion ($3.75 billion) in March 2021, compared to SR12.2 billion ($3.26 billion) in the same period last year.

According to the monthly bulletin, released by the Saudi Central Bank on Thursday, remittances of expatriates jumped in March by 24.3 percent compared to February 2021, which amounted to about SR11.3 billion ($3.01 billion). In the first quarter of this year, remittances of expatriates increased by 10.5 percent to SR37.41 billion ($9.97 billion), as against SR33.85 billion ($9.03 billion) in the first quarter of 2020.

Remittances of Saudis to outside the Kingdom rose by 11.6 percent in the first quarter of 2021, reaching SR14.87 billion ($3.96 billion), compared to SR13.32 billion ($3.55 billion) in the same quarter of 2020. In March this year, Saudi remittances abroad amounted to SR6.5 billion ($1.74 billion), compared to SR5.16 billion ($1.38 billion) in March 2020, an increase of 26.4 percent.

It is noteworthy that remittances of expatriates increased by 19.25 percent during the year 2020, reaching SR149.69 billion ($39.92 billion) as compared to SR125.53 billion ($33.47 billion) during the year 2019. The value of remittances during the past year recorded its highest value since 2016.

Remittances from Saudi Arabia during the year 2020 beat the expectations of top global financial institutions. The World Bank expected that remittances of workers abroad around the world would drop, attributing it to several factors, namely weak economic growth rates and employment rates in host countries of immigrants, falling oil prices, and a decrease in the value of the currencies of countries where from remittances are taking place.