INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Remittances to India rose sharply by 9.9 per cent in 2017.Washington/New Delhi: India topped as the highest recipient of remittances
globally in 2017, with its diaspora sending back $69 billion, a World Bank statement said here on Monday."Remittance inflows improved in all
regions and the top remittance recipients were India with $69 billion, followed by China ($64 billion), the Philippines ($33 billion),
Mexico ($31 billion), Nigeria ($22 billion), and Egypt ($20 billion)," the statement said.Remittances to India rose sharply by 9.9 per cent
in 2017, reversing the previous year's sharp decline, the report added.Global remittances are expected grow 4.6 per cent to $642 billion
in 2018, it said.Remittances to low and middle-income countries rebounded to a record level in 2017 after two consecutive years of decline,
says the World Bank's latest Migration and Development Brief."The overall recovery in remittances is better than we expected
It is driven by stronger growth in the European Union, the Russian Federation, and the United States
The rebound in remittances, when valued in US dollars, was helped by higher oil prices and a strengthening of the euro and ruble," said
Dilip Ratha, lead economist at the World Bank in his blog."The global average cost of sending $200 was 7.1 per cent in the first quarter of
The cost ranges from the most expensive average cost of 9.4 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa, to the lowest average cost of 5.2 percent in
The average cost is higher than the Sustainable Development Goal target of 3 percent in all regions," he said."While remittances are
growing, countries, institutions, and development agencies must continue to chip away at high costs of remitting so that families receive
Eliminating exclusivity contracts to improve market competition and introducing more efficient technology are high-priority issues," Ratha
added.The Bank estimates that officially recorded remittances to low and middle-income countries reached $466 billion in 2017, an increase
grew a rapid 21 percent to $48 billion in 2017, after three consecutive years of decline.(Except for the headline, this story has not been
edited by staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
