Business News

India as the Highest Remittances

World Bank report said that India has retained its position as the highest recipient of remittances in the world in 2018. The Indian diaspora sent a staggering total of $79 billion back to the country last year. The World Bank says that remittances to low- and middle-income countries reached an all-time high in 2018 with a total $529 billion sent. This is a 9.6% increase from 2017. A large chunk of this increase—12%—can be traced back to the South Asian region.

“The overall increase was driven by a stronger economy and employment situation in the United States and a rebound in outward flows from some Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the Russian Federation”, said the World Bank. The GCC is a political and economic tie-up between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.  The World Bank said that China was the second highest recipient with $67 billion, Mexico placed third with $36 billion, the Philippines followed in fourth with $34 billion, and Egypt came fifth with $29 billion.

In general, global remittances peaked at $689 billion in 2018, higher than $633 billion in 2017. The RBI said that 52% of remittances to India come from the Gulf and West Asia. Most of this money comes from the UAE and Saudi Arabia. South Asia’s remittance rate grew by 12% in 2018 when people sent back $131 billion. This rate is twice as high as in 2017 when remittance growth was only 6%. India itself saw a huge surge in remittances that accounted for 2.9% of her GDP in 2018.