Although the Covid-19 pandemic has caused immense losses across many economic sectors around the world since the start of the crisis in early 2020, the remittances of foreign workers globally have remained high when compared with the disruption and unemployment it has unleashed.
Many institutions and companies, particularly those operating in the fields of tourism, hospitality and aviation have been severely impacted by the crisis.
Data released by the World Bank Group in its report for 2020 indicate that remittance flows to low and middle-income countries reached about $540 billion, a decrease of 1.6 per cent compared at $548 billion recorded a year earlier.
This means that most workers in the world were able to transfer their savings and monthly benefits during the pandemic without any problems and difficulties.
The procedures followed by central banks during the pandemic facilitated the process of transferring money, in addition to establishing modern methods of transferring the funds at low cost during that the crisis.
This may have helped many foreign workers to send their remittances, which decreased slightly in 2020 from the level that was recorded during the financial crisis of 2009.
The World Bank Group expects some recovery in global economic growth in 2021, which will inevitably lead to an increase in remittances to low and middle-income countries, projected to grow by 2.6 per cent to $553 billion during the current year, rising by a further 2.2 per cent to reach $565 billion in 2022.
As is well-known, remittances from the GCC countries are largely due to the presence of millions of foreign workers distributed across various oil and non-oil sectors.
Remittance services in these countries are widely available and affordable, although rates vary from country to country.
In view of the needs of developing countries for these annual transfers to support their economies and social projects, money transfer fees are moderate and in line with the sustainable development goals approved by international organisations and UN institutions that champion peoples’ economic and social rights.
Remittances are a valuable lifeline to many poor and developing countries that depend on this income stream to establish projects that support social development, education, health, clean water supply and other basic necessities.
The World Bank Group has revealed that the success of the flow of these remittances is due to several reasons, including the ability of the countries of the world to face all the economic challenges resulting from the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, on the one hand, despite the decline in global oil prices, and to the means of modern technologies that have been introduced in money exchange services.
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