Remittances of Jordanian expatriates plummeted by 5.6 percent during the first 11 months of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, according to figures by the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ).
The CBJ figures indicated on Monday that remittances stood at about 2.338 billion Jordanian dinars (about 3.3 billion U.S. dollars) during the
January to November period of 2009.
In November of 2009 alone, the remittances amounted to about 230 million Jordanian dinars, increasing by 29.5 percent compared to the same
month in 2008.
According to estimates by the Department of Statistics (DoS), there are roughly 600,000 Jordanians working abroad, a large number of whom work in Saudi Arabia. Other countries include the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.
Overwhelming majority of the Jordanian expatriates work in sectors of medicine, engineering, IT and education. (1 U.S. dollar = 0.709 Jordanian dinar).