RIYADH — Personal remittances of expatriates in Saudi Arabia recorded a decline of 12.57 percent, reaching SR9.91 billion ($2.64 billion) during September 2023 compared to SR11.33 billion ($3.02 billion) in September 2022. On a monthly basis, expatriate remittances dropped by eight percent in September compared to SR10.77 billion ($2.87 billion) in the previous month. During the third quarter of 2023, the total remittances of expatriates registered a fall of 10 percent, reaching SR31.3 billion ($8.35 billion), compared to about SR34.86 billion ($9.29 billion) in the third quarter of 2022. The total remittances of expatriates amounted to about SR93.22 billion ($24.86 billion) in the first nine months of 2023, compared to about SR111.42 billion ($29.7 billion) in the corresponding period of 2022. It is noteworthy that remittance flows to the Middle East and North Africa region decreased by 3.8 percent reaching $64 billion in 2022 after recording a strong growth rate of 12.2 percent in 2021, according to the World Bank. The region's economies that witnessed slight increases in remittance inflows included some Maghreb countries. The bank stated that in 2023, remittance flows to the region are expected to increase by 1.7 percent, and future prospects vary between subgroups of countries in the region depending on the identity of the dominant host countries and the degree of exposure to high inflation and financial market fluctuations. The average cost of sending $200 to the region was 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from 6.4 percent a year ago, the bank pointed out.
