EXPATRIATE WOES

'NRI deposits dropped by 98% in first five months of FY'

indian-worker-dubai-reuters (File) Indian workers in Dubai | Reuters

The non-resident Indians' net deposit inflow has dropped by 98 per cent in the first five months of the current financial year, compared to the corresponding period in 2016-17. According to an ASSOCHAM analysis, this was on account of the “fading away of the glorious years for the oil-rich countries in the Gulf, following the crude prices battling to inch up”.

"While there are various factors responsible for the NRI flows, including the interest rates, the most plausible at this point of time seems to be the economic problems in the Gulf countries, the largest source of NRI remittances, particularly for the low-income expatriates. Remittances have been affected for states like Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where a large number of people make their living in the Gulf nations", the ASSOCHAM paper said.

In actual terms, the NRI deposit flows dropped from $3.84 billion in April-August last year, to $434 million in April-August of this fiscal. The aggregate outstandings of NRI deposits dropped from $130.16 billion last year to $118.46 billion this year.

According to ASSOCHAM, the Non-Resident External Rupee (NRE) account has witnessed more than 50 per cent decline in deposits, and now stands at $1.53 billion. The trade body believes that there has been a net outflow. 

Interestingly, the study notes that more people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, compared to Kerala, have been migrating to the Gulf countries over the last few years.

ASSOCHAM Secretary General D.S. Rawat commented that "while the easing of oil prices by more than half has helped the Indian macroeconomy by slashing of the import bill, our workforce overseas has suffered the collateral damage".

This browser settings will not support to add bookmarks programmatically. Please press Ctrl+D or change settings to bookmark this page.
Topics : #business

Related Reading