Remittances up:
$7.5 billion in 2019

17 percent drop in 2020

on global slowdown, lower oil prices

Remittance inflows to Lebanon are estimated to have increased 7.6 percent to $7.5 billion in 2019 compared with the previous year, according to the World Bank (WB).

The WB said in its ‘Migration and Development Brief’ that Lebanon is likely to see its remittance inflows plunge 17 percent in 2020.


Source: World Bank, KNOMAD

“Remittances to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are projected to fall by almost 20 percent to $47 billion in 2020, following the 2.6 percent growth seen in 2019. The anticipated decline is attributable to the global slowdown as well as the impact of lower oil prices in GCC countries,” the WB said. “Remittances from the euro area would also be impacted by the area’s pre-COVID-19 economic slowdown and the depreciation of the euro against the U.S. dollar.”

Remittance inflows represented close to 13 percent of GDP in 2019, the second largest percentage in the MENA region after West Bank and Gaza.

The costs of sending remittances to Lebanon from Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia, remain among the highest‐cost remittance corridors to the MENA region.

“The cost of sending money from high‐income countries of the Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) to Lebanon continues to be in the double digits,” the WB said.