Egypt’s remittance flows to increase by 3.1% in 2023: World Bank

CAIRO - 19 June 2023: The World Bank published its Migration and Development Briefs report, earlier this June, where the Bank expects remittance flows in Egypt to increase in 2023 by 3.1 percent followed by a decline of 1.4 percent in 2024.

According to the bank's report, remittances to Egypt, the biggest recipient of remittances in the region, decreased by 10 percent year on year (YoY) to $28.3 billion in 2022, compared to a record high of $31.5 billion in 2021. Remittances are Egypt's main source of foreign currency.

Remittances by Egyptians working abroad increased by 23% during the first half of the fiscal year 2022/2023, declining to $12 billion from $15.6 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) data in May.

The bank also predicted that remittance flows to the Middle East and North Africa region are expected to recover from a 3.8 percent decline in 2022 to a 1.7 percent increase in 2023 and 1.8 percent gain in 2024. This increase is based on an expected turnaround in flows to Egypt.

Remittances to the Middle East and North Africa region fell by about 4 percent in 2022, to $64 billion, this drop is attributed the decline in remittances in 2022 to a 10 percent drop in flows to Egypt, Algeria and Jordan.