Remittances from Saudi Arabia soaring

Remittances from Saudi Arabia’s estimated nine million mostly Asian foreign workers are soaring as the kingdom recruits more of them for its massive development plan, an economist said Saturday. At 18.4 billion dollars last year and 15.0 billion in the first eight months of 2009, earnings sent abroad now equalled four percent of Saudi gross domestic product, John Sfakianakis of Banque Saudi Fransi said, citing government data. Remittances in the January-August 2009 period jumped 12 percent compared with 2008, according to central bank statistics.