Dubai, Aug 11: Over four million Indian workers in the Gulf region remit nearly $5 billion a year, says a report.

Foreign workers, mainly from India and Pakistan, send home nearly nine percent of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member nations' gross domestic product (GDP) each year.

The largest transfers originate from Saudi Arabia, which accounts for 63 percent of all remittances, followed by the United Arab Emirates at 15 percent, according to a report in the Gulf Daily News.

"Close to $413 billion was remitted by expatriates between 1975 and 2002," said Dr N. Janardhan, programme manager, GCC-Asia Relations.

"India and Pakistan together received about $60 billion in 10 years between 1993 and 2002, while India presently averages receipts of nearly $5 billion ever year," he told the newspaper.