Nepal's Remittances Hit a Record High Despite a Gulf Crisis

What actually happened earlier this year

On February 28, 2026, the US and Israel launched a military campaign against Iran, triggering Iranian retaliatory strikes across Gulf states — affecting infrastructure near Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar. Nepal suspended labor permits to 12 West Asian countries the very next day, directly affecting a workforce base where roughly 75% of all Nepali migrant workers are employed. Permits were gradually restored country by country through March and April, with full resumption for the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait by late April.

Why remittances still hit a record despite this

Nepal Rastra Bank's own data shows remittance inflow rising 39.1% to Rs 1.66 trillion (USD 11.55 billion) in the first nine months of the fiscal year — a sharp acceleration from the 10.2% growth in the same period the year before. The permit freeze affected new workers heading out, not the roughly 1.9 million Nepalis already established across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain — and if anything, the uncertainty may have pushed existing workers to send more home during a genuinely worrying stretch, not less.

What this actually demonstrates

The remittance channel itself proved resilient even when the labor pipeline briefly wasn't — money kept moving through formal channels throughout the disruption, while the actual crisis was about new departures and permit renewals, not the ability of existing workers to send money home. That's a genuinely reassuring signal about the underlying infrastructure, even during a period when Nepal's own reporting described real anxiety among affected families.

What it means if you're sending money right now

If you're one of the established Nepali workers in the UAE this affected, your ability to send money was never actually in question during the crisis — providers kept functioning normally throughout. The lesson worth taking forward: your remittance method doesn't depend on political conditions the same way travel and permits do, but it's still worth having a backup provider in mind (see our backup plan guide) for the rare case a specific provider is affected by regional disruption.

The bigger picture for Nepal's economy

Remittances already make up more than a quarter of Nepal's roughly $42 billion economy, and this year's surge reinforces just how central that flow is — bigger than the disruption of a genuine regional conflict. Whatever you send, however often, is part of a channel that's proven more resilient than the geopolitics around it this year.

See also: backup plan if your provider is down · Nepal's earlier remittance record · all 6 providers compared