Remittances to Egypt have increased by 30 percent for the first time since 2011, according to currency exchange offices.

Political turmoil in Egypt and ongoing labor inspections had drastically reduced the amount of money Egyptian expats had sent back home during this period.

Around 300,000 Egyptians were deported following the introduction of the new labor laws, which took effect in November 2013.

Remittance volumes have made a partial recovery since Egyptians were encouraged to support their country’s economy following the election of Abdel Fattah El-Sissi as president.

“This is the first time since the revolution that remittances have bounced back,” Abdul Ruhman Bahamdan, the manager of a currency exchange office in downtown Jeddah, said.

“Political crisis and a fragile Egyptian economy had sent the remittances into a nosedive during this period,” Mustafa Subhi, a Jeddah-based Egyptian economist, said.

Expat remittances stood at an estimated SR1billion in 2013, a steep decline from the SR6 billion in 2010.

“Many Egyptians in the Kingdom are now unable to transfer the large amounts of money they did in the past to help their friends and relatives back home,” he added.

Subhi said that despite the crisis, foreign currency reserves in the Egyptian Central Bank now range between 16 billion and 18 billion Egyptian pounds.