Lebanon second among Arab countries with foreign remittances of USD 7.2 billion

The Director General of the Federation of Arab Banks, Wissam Hassan Fattu7h, disclosed last Sunday that the remittances of the 24 million Arab migrant workers have reached some USD 49 billion in 2015. Egypt came first among Arab countries and seventh globally in terms of money transfers (USD 19.7 billion in 2015, representing nearly 40.4% of the overall transfer of funds from Arab migrant workers to their home countries. Lebanon for its part, came second with some USD 7.2 billion. According to Fattu7h, the phenomenon of risk aversion, coupled with the fall of oil prices and a slow economic growth in the Arab oil producing countries, have all led to a slight decline (3.3%) in the emigrant remittances to Lebanon in 2015, which is still better when compared to 2014 (8.4% of decline). To this effect, the Federation released a study on the overall transfer of funds by workers to and from the Arab region, targeting 11 Arab labor exporting countries in 2015, namely, Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Palestine and Yemen. The study indicated the significance of migrants’ transfers as a vital element for the overall economic stability of labor exporting states. It pointed out that in 2015 these remittances represented 16% of the overall size of Lebanese economy (that is the GDP). As Safir, Al Mustaqbal, Al Diyar, June 20, 2016