Foreign workers across the six Gulf Cooperation Council states sent home a combined $161 billion in 2025, a record for the bloc and the highest remittance outflow recorded by any region globally, according to new figures from the Statistical Centre for the Cooperation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf (GCC-Stat).
The total marks a 13.6% increase over the $142 billion sent in 2024, an additional $19 billion in outbound transfers in a single year. By comparison, countries typically associated with the largest remittance outflows posted smaller totals: the United States sent $107 billion, Switzerland $43 billion, Germany $27 billion and France $21 billion.
GCC-Stat said remittances now equal 6.6% of the bloc's combined GDP, up from 6% in 2024. The agency attributed the growth to the Gulf's continued ability to attract expatriate labour as its economies diversify beyond hydrocarbons, with infrastructure, construction, services and manufacturing driving much of the demand for foreign workers.
The UAE, one of the region's largest employers of expatriate labour, accounts for a significant share of the total. The steady expansion of non-oil sectors in the UAE in recent years has been a key factor behind rising demand for foreign workers and, in turn, the growing volume of money transferred abroad from the country. Analysts say the scale of these outflows underscores just how central migrant labour has become to the Gulf's post-oil growth model, even as it represents billions in income earned locally but spent elsewhere.