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Report: Remittances from Egypt expats rose 10.5% in 2020

March 16, 2021 at 10:14 am

People walk past the Egyptian Central Bank in downtown Cairo on 3 November 2016 [KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images]

Remittances from Egyptians working abroad increased by 10.5 per cent in 2020, despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said yesterday.

Transfers rose from $26.8 billion in 2019 to $29.6 billion in 2020, the central bank said in a statement. The fourth quarter of 2020 saw an increase of 7.6 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier, it added.

The World Bank had previously estimated that remittances’ flows from expatriate workers to low and middle-income countries had decreased seven per cent to $508 billion in 2020, and expected them to continue to decline by 7.5 per cent to $470 billion in 2021.

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