Remittances by expatriates working in Saudi Arabia have gone up by about 3 percent to reach about SR118.8 billion in the first three quarters of the current year compared to SR115.7 billion during the same period last year, Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper reported on Sunday. The business daily said the expatriates have remitted about SR1.46 trillion in 21 years from early 1994 to September 2015. The remittances have, however, gone down by 3 percent in September to reach SR12 billion compared to SR12.4 billion in August. On a yearly basis, the remittances have decreased by about SR1.9 billion (13 percent). On the other hand, the Saudi monthly remittances have decreased by less than 1 percent to reach SR20.07 billion in September from SR21.1 billion in August 2015. The highest remittances made by the expatriates were in 2014 when they reached SR153.3 billion with a rise of SR5.3 billion over 2013. According to the Central Department of Statistics and Information (CDSI), there were 10.07 million expatriates in the Kingdom until the end of 2014 representing about 33 percent of the population. The Saudis are 20.7 million. According to the department, Saudi Arabia has a total population of 30.77 million, composed of citizens and expatriates.
