Written by Dilip Ratha, Sanket Mohapatra, and Ani Silwal, published by The Migration and Remittances Team of the World Bank’s Development Prospects Group (DECPG) in April 2010, 18 pages, available at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1110315015165/MigrationAndDevelopmentBrief12.pdf
The Migration and Remittances Team of the World Bank’s Development Prospects Group (DECPG), an organization providing information and analysis on global economic trends, has published a paper entitled “Outlook for Remittance Flows 2010-2011.” The paper discusses recent trends in remittances, provides statistics from 2008 and 2009, and provides estimates related to remittances over the next few years. Some of the highlights are as follows:
Remittances have decreased from USD 336 billion in 2008 to USD 316 billion in 2009 (6 percent). This was the first decrease since the 1980s. However, remittances were more resilient during the financial crisis relative to other flows such as private debt, equity and foreign direct investment. Eastern Europe and Central Asia saw the largest decrease in remittances, 21 percent from 2008 to 2009. South Asia saw the highest increase (5 percent) in remittances from 2008 to 2009, though this is modest compared to earlier rapid growth. India and China by far received the largest amount of remittances in 2009, with approximately USD 49 billion and USD 48 billion, respectively. The authors predict that remittances worldwide will increase by 6.2 percent in 2010 and 7.1 percent in 2011. These estimates are lower than they would have otherwise been due to high unemployment rates and low demand for high-skilled foreign workers in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
The study also covers some general trends related to remittances. For example, countries such as El Salvador, Ethiopia, Nepal, the Philippines, Rwanda and Sri Lanka have issued or are considering issuing diaspora bonds, debt instruments issued by a country to raise funds from its diaspora population. Many banks and operators across the world are cutting remittance fees. The corridor from the United Arab Emirates to South Asia, for instance, often costs less than USD 1 per transaction. Another important trend is the introduction of mobile money transfer technologies, which have become vital to the remittance market in places such as Africa, South Asia and the Philippines. Lastly, many microfinance institutions (MFIs) are looking to provide remittance services.
By Christopher Maggio, Research Assistant
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