A financial crisis in Dubai will hurt remittances to India and reduce job opportunities for citizens of the south Asian nation, said Thomas Issac, finance minister of the southern state of Kerala.
About 4.5 million Indians live and work in the Gulf region and remit more than $10 billion annually, according to the Ministry of External Affairs annual report for the year ended March 31, 2009. Remittances from the Middle East account for about 25 percent of Kerala’s economy, Issac said.
“It’s quite likely that Dubai will face a severe downturn in the real estate and financial sectors and that will affect remittances and jobs,” Issac said in an interview at his office at Thiruvananthapuram today.