UAE remittances drop 10% in Q1 – paper

UAE expatriate remittances fell 10 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2009, Al Ittihad said, citing officials from four companies that conduct money transfers.

According to the Bloomberg newswire, the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper cited Zara’at Hussein, Director-General of the National Exchange Co, and Ahmed Al Ansari, Director-General of Redha Al Ansari Exchange as saying that remittances fell as people lost jobs, particularly in real estate and construction.

There are 110 exchange companies in the UAE, over 550 branches and approximately 2.5m remittance transactions per month.

Around $50bn in remittances was transferred from the GCC in 2008 and it is the second largest global market, beaten only by the US.

In the UAE, where expatriates account for around 80 percent of the population, the Al Ansari Exchange estimates that the market is worth around $20bn.

Mohamed Al Ansari, chairman of the firm and the Foreign Exchange and Remittance Group, UAE (FERG), said in March that he predicts the situation to recover this year and return to growth in 2011.