Page 91 - AAE PR REPORT - January 2025

However, a strengthening US dollar, mainly due to the new Donald Trump administration, has
supported remittances due to the difference between the greenback and currencies in
countries customers remit money to.
The dollar has strengthened against the Indian rupee, Pakistani rupee and Filipino peso. That’s
the demographic that sends money regularly back home. This offered a lot of purchasing power
to these consumers, he added.

The demographics of the UAE, with expatriates constituting 88 per cent of the population, are
seen as directly proportional to the volume of personal outward remittances. The Emirates
ranked second globally for sending international remittances after the US, followed by Saudi
Arabia in third place, during 2023, according to the World Bank.

In the same year, personal outward remittances in the UAE reached about Dh134 billion, which
averages around Dh11 billion on a monthly basis.

The UAE’s demographics is continuously changing and transitioning to a knowledge-based
economy, Mr Al Ansari said.

“Many expats are coming here, staying longer, establishing a family and calling the UAE home,
which shifts the labour force from domestic workers to a white-collar base. That affects the
volume of remittance transactions,” he explained.

“With white-collar workers, they are more educated and understand currency trends. Instead of
remitting on a monthly basis, they wait to see the exchange rate and then remit a large chunk of
money.”

There has been a growth in remittances due to the surge in the UAE’s population, but the
existence of parallel channels could have affected the numbers, he pointed out. Data from the
UAE Central Bank showed a 3 per cent decline in remittances last year.

The UAE’s demographic mix has not changed. Indians remit the most money, followed by
Pakistanis, Filipinos and Egyptians.

“But we have noticed some increase in the Pakistani corridor, because they offer the Pakistan
Remittance Initiative. It was launched in 2009 to move people from unofficial channels into
official channels and has worked very well. Specifically last year, once the parallel market
subsided, people came back much quicker into official channels than other corridors,” Mr Al
Ansari said.

https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/money/2025/01/24/remittance-uae-al-ansari/