RIYADH, Nov 30: Expatriate workers in the Kingdom have remitted SR40.8 billion ($10.8 billion) from Saudi Arabia to their respective countries during the first nine months of this year ending September 30, a quarterly report issued by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) said.

This includes foreign currency purchases by expatriates during this period. Indians are the largest expatriate community in the Kingdom followed by the Egyptians and the Pakistanis.

Although no concrete figures are available, the number of Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia is roughly believed to be 800,000.

The SAMA report also said that only during the third quarter of the year 2001, the total amount remitted by the expatriates stood at SR13,803 billion ($3.6811 billion).

The purchase of foreign exchange by Saudi banks between Jan 1 and Sept 30 was SR283 billion ($75.48 billion). Liabilities of the private sector to local banks rose from SR178.53 billion in the second quarter to SR182.73 billion in the third quarter, growing at the rate of 2.3 per cent.

Twenty-one per cent of the SR185.34 billion credits provided by the banks to various economic sectors in the third quarter were reported to be long-term and 62 per cent were short-term loans.

Also, the public sector’s liabilities grew from SR124.37 billion in the first quarter to SR130.42 billion in the second quarter and SR133.45 billion in the third quarter.

The Saudi central bank in its 37th annual report released earlier this week said the Kingdom’s balance of payments improved considerably during the past year with the current account surplus rising from SR1.5 billion in 1999 to SR53.7 billion in 2000.

The report attributed the growth to a 57.9 per cent rise in the value of the Kingdom’s oil exports. The value of Saudi oil exports last year stood at SR264.9 billion as against SR167.8 billion the previous year.