- According to the the World Bank’s ‘Migration and Development Brief’ report, India was the top recipient of remittances in 2018 again.
- India received $79 billion in 2018 as a remittance, which grew by 14% over 2017. However the World Bank said that“a flooding disaster in Kerala likely boosted the financial help that migrants sent to families”. A total of 483 people were killed by the floods that hit the state in August 2018.
- India has registered a significant flow of remittances from $62.7 billion in 2016 to $65.3 billion 2017.
- China came second with $67 billion. Mexico with $35 billion, the Philippines with $34 billion and Egypt with $29 billion were the others in top five.
- The low and middle income countries as a group received $529 billion in 2018, which was an increase of 9.6% over the previous record high of $483 billion in 2017.
- The rest pitched in an additional $160 billion to take the global aggregate to $689 billion.
- The World Bank report said that the global increase in remittances was driven by a stronger economy and employment situation in the US and a “rebound” in outflows from the Gulf Cooperation Countries, because of an increase in oil prices that is the chief source of their income, and Russia.
