Expat remittances pouring out from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states reached around 59 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, the Kuwait-based daily Arab Times reported on Monday.

Jean Claude Farah, Vice President of a world leading money transfer provider "Western Union", gave the figure in a press conference here Sunday, said Times.

This amount accounted for 24 percent of the global remittance market, Farah was quoted as saying.

According to Farah, Saudi Arabia alone represented 29 percent of the total GCC remittances, while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait ranked the second and third.

Saudi Arabia also comes in second place in terms of global expatriate remittances, as remittances from the kingdom account for seven percent of the global overall, he added.

Farah said the remittances from GCC countries goes to Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan, which reached around 37 billion dollars in 2005.

GCC groups Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

The Indian community is the largest working community in GCC states in respect to remittances, which was estimated at 20 billion dollars yearly, according to the report.

Source: Xinhua