Thanks to the country’s sizeable expatriate population, remittance outflows from the UAE have always been substantial. According to UAE Central Bank figures, Dh165 billion was remitted from the Emirates in 2019, second only to the US, which sent out Dh250 billion. While India has always accounted for the lion’s share of UAE remittances, pandemic-induced job losses saw the amount of money being remitted there from the Gulf state declined by 15.6 per cent over 2020.
However, remittances are set to play a key role in India’s economic recovery. “Remittances have always been vital to India’s economy, with it being the world’s top recipient of remittances as per the World Bank,” says Al Ansari Exchange CEO Rashed A Al Ansari.
Economic recovery
“The remittance sector will play an essential role in the nation’s recovery from the pandemic. This is because the money being sent to the country from its nationals living abroad is mainly used by families to improve their standard of living and access essential services such as education, healthcare and housing.”
A spokesperson for LuLu Exchange says, “While it is true that the numbers have decreased due to the pandemic, high-value transactions have picked up on account of the rupee weakening significantly. This means the general reduction in volume is primarily due to a drop in remittance transactions of small amounts, and the higher value transactions have largely managed to balance the sector. We estimate an overall drop of 10-12 per cent for the sector in 2021.
“On the bright side, the market has significantly picked up and the last quarter may see some interesting trends, with Expo 2020 and other aspects of the UAE economy further strengthening. We are confident that between our extensive branch network and our upgraded mobile app LuLu Money, we will be able to record positive growth in the second half, which will prop up our overall performance in 2021.” (gulfnews.com)
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