According to figures recently published by the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ), expatriate transfers during the first four months of 2010 rose by 2.4 per cent reaching JD797.7 million ($1.1 billion) compared with JD779 million during the same period last year.
Foreign remittances represent approximately 20 per cent of Jordan’s gross domestic product.
CBJ figures showed that remittances during April of this year increased by 6.7 per cent compared to the same month in 2009 from JD195 million to JD208 million.
Economist Hani Khalili said that the rise in money transfers from abroad indicates that either the number of Jordanians working in the Gulf region has increased or that workers’ income have gone up.
“I believe that the number of Jordanians working in the Gulf has increased because the economies of these countries are recovering and they tend to attract more skilled labor,” Khalili said, adding that Jordanians are among the most wanted skilled workers in the Gulf.
Fahmi Abu Dayeh, chief economist at a local bank, said that the volume of remittances is returning to its usual levels from previous years, noting that the drop in remittances in 2009 was temporary, due to repercussions of the global economic downturn.
“I expect remittances to continue growing in the coming years as higher oil prices have spurred recovery in the Gulf region,” he said.
Economist Ali Tabbalat agreed, but cautioned that “remittances are expected to rise steadily but not dramatically”.
The Gulf private sector is looking for qualified and skilled staff, and many Jordanians are heading to work in the oil-rich region, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Tabbalat added.
Economists agreed that last year analysts overestimated the effects of the global downturn when they predicted that many Jordanians working in the Gulf would be laid off.
Abu Dayeh said that lay-offs in the Gulf were primarily among Asians who often work as unskilled laborers in construction projects, whereas Jordanians work in more specialized fields such as engineering, medicine and academia.
Tabbalat said that the majority of Jordanians who left work in the Gulf were working in Dubai, as the emirate was hardest hit by the global financial crisis, agreeing that the number of those who were sacked was “very limited”.
According to official figures, over 600,000 Jordanians work abroad, mainly in the Gulf countries, of whom 260,000 work in Saudi Arabia, 250,000 in the United Arab Emirates, 42,000 in Kuwait and 27,000 in Qatar.