India was world’s largest remittance-receiving country in 2017: Repot

According to recently released report ‘RemitSCOPE – Remittance markets and opportunities – Asia and the Pacific’, India was largest remittance receiving country in the world with US $69 billion in 2017. Top five remittance receiving countries in 2017 in the world were India ($69 billion), China ($64 billion) and Philippines ($33 billion), Pakistan ($20 billion), and Vietnam ($14 billion).

Key Highlights of Report

Asia-Pacific region: Remittances to Asia-Pacific region amounted to US $256 billion in 2017. It represented 53% of flows worldwide, growing 4.87% since 2008, with rates flattening in recent years. About 70% of remittances sent to Asia and Pacific came from outside region and in particular from Gulf States (32%), North America (26%) and Europe (12%).
Remittances contribute to region more than 10 times official development assistance. 400 million people in region i.e. one out of every 10 people, are directly affected by remittances either as sender or as receiver. It benefits about 320 million family members in the region, most of them in rural areas.
Remittances and Rural Development: Remittances are particularly crucial in rural areas where poverty is highest. Worldwide, an estimated 40% of total value of remittances goes to rural areas. In Asia-Pacific region, remittances go disproportionally to countries with majority of rural populations such as Nepal (81%), India (67%), Vietnam (66%), Bangladesh (65%), Pakistan (61%) and the Philippines (56%). Remittances to rural areas are generally costlier due to expenses associated with offering access points in distant locations.
Usage of Remittances: 70% of remittances in the Asia pacific region are used to meet basic needs, such as food, clothing, healthcare and education. The remaining 30% can be saved and invested in asset-building or income-generating activities, helping families to build livelihoods and their future.
Improvement of remittance markets: It still needs to be transformed to ensure that families can benefit fully from the flows. Technological innovation in remittance marketplace can bring about fundamental transformation for hundreds of millions benefiting from these flows. Moreover, outdated regulatory barriers on both sending and receiving ends is resulting in higher and less transparent costs which make it less likely and more difficult to convert remittances into savings and investments. Besides, financial inclusion which has increased in recent times has not fully represented reality of substantial majority of remittance receiving families in Asia-Pacific region where financial exclusion remains predominant.
 

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2018