14.5% increase in remittance by expatriates last year

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

As the Corona pandemic made a sharp decline in spending in the year 2020, the statistics by Central Bank of Kuwait shows an increase in remittances made by expatriates in Kuwait during the year 2020. According to statistics, the expats remittance witnessed a jump of about 14.5% to reach 5.3 billion dinars, compared to remittance of 4.62 billion dinars in 2019.

According to data, even though the second quarter of 2020 witnessed a decrease, the remittance witnessed a significant improvement in the third and fourth quarters of last year. The transfers reached 1.47 billion dinars in the fourth quarter, 1.4 billion dinars in the third quarter, 1.05 billion dinars in the second quarter, and 1.35 billion dinars in the first quarter.

The increase in remittance by expatriates to their home countries comes despite the repercussions of the Corona pandemic, which resulted in thousands of expatriates lost their jobs. Many of them also witnessed a cut in their salaries, which resulted in the decrease in remittance in the first and second quarters.

In the third and fourth quarter, many expatriates sent their families to their country, transfer a bulk of their income to their families. Thousands of expatriates also left Kuwait permanently, which resulted in transferring their savings to their home country as Kuwait doesn't offer any investment for expatriates.

The curfews and closure of restaurants also could be a reason where spending opportunity were limited for expatriates, which in turn made them to remit their money to their home country. In addition expatriates also did not travel during the summer holidays last year.

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