JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia’s May 2026 Indonesian Economic and Financial Statistics update showed Indonesian migrant workers sent home US$4.536 billion in remittances in Q1 2026. The data was published on June 17 and followed US$17.255 billion in total remittances in 2025 and US$15.702 billion in 2024.
The Q1 2026 figure was marked as “very temporary” in Bank Indonesia’s table V.31 on remittances of Indonesian migrant workers by host country. The latest quarterly total was above US$4.164 billion in Q1 2025 and US$4.465 billion in Q4 2025.
Malaysia remained the largest single corridor, with US$1.209 billion in recorded remittances in Q1 2026. Saudi Arabia followed with US$1.005 billion, ahead of Taiwan at US$801 million and Hong Kong at US$691 million.
Japan, South Korea and Singapore were also among the main host-country corridors. Bank Indonesia recorded US$208 million from Japan, US$202 million from South Korea and US$130 million from Singapore in Q1 2026.
The corridor breakdown shows how concentrated Indonesia’s migrant-worker remittance flows remain. Malaysia alone accounted for about 26.7% of the Q1 2026 total. Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and Hong Kong together accounted for about 81.7% of all recorded migrant-worker remittances in the quarter, based on Bank Indonesia’s country-level figures.
Most of the Q1 inflow came from Asian host economies. Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Singapore together sent US$3.241 billion, equal to about 71.5% of Indonesia’s migrant-worker remittances for the quarter.
By region, ASEAN corridors accounted for US$1.359 billion in Q1 2026, almost entirely from Malaysia. Asia excluding ASEAN contributed US$1.915 billion, led by Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Middle East contributed US$1.117 billion, with Saudi Arabia making up the dominant share.
The remittance pattern closely follows where Indonesian migrant workers are concentrated. Bank Indonesia’s worker-stock table put the total at 4.209 million people in Q1 2026, including 1.791 million in Malaysia, 854,000 in Saudi Arabia, 584,000 in Taiwan and 551,000 in Hong Kong.
Singapore, Japan and South Korea added another 247,000 workers, leaving seven host economies with about 4.027 million Indonesian migrant workers, or nearly 96% of the recorded total.
