Remittances sent home by Omanis abroad to touch $40m by year end

Muscat: Omanis working abroad this year will send home around US$40 million (around OMR15.4 million) by year end, according to a World Bank report.
In 1978, the remittance inflow to Oman stood at US$29 million, according to the report, and grew to US$43 million by 1985, the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, released recently, revealed.
Remittances to low- and middle-income countries are on course to recover in 2017 after two consecutive years of decline.
The Bank estimates that officially recorded remittances to developing countries are expected to grow by 4.8 per cent to $450 billion for 2017.
Global remittances, which include flows to high-income countries, are projected to grow by 3.9 per cent to $596 billion.
The World Bank report also said that after two years of decline, remittances to the Middle East and North Africa region are expected to grow by 4.6 per cent to $51 billion this year, largely driven by strong flows to Egypt, the region’s largest recipient, in response to the devaluation of the Egyptian pound.
The growth outlook is, however, dampened by lower growth in the GCC due to oil production cuts and fiscal consolidation. Remittances to the region will grow by 2.9 per cent to $53 billion in 2018.
Expats working in Oman send home five times the amount Omanis send into the country, on average, according to the data.
Almost OMR1 billion rials more has been sent home by expats working in Oman over the past five years, according to the Central Bank.
The amount of money sent home has increased by 30 per cent over that period — despite the economic slowdown, data from Central Bank of Oman shows.
Remittances rose from below OMR3 billion in 2012 to around OMR3.7 billion in 2016 while the actual number of transactions also rose to 13.24 million when compared to much below 10 million five years ago.