India becomes largest remittance-receiving country in world in 2017

According to the report ‘RemitSCOPE – Remittance markets and opportunities – Asia and the Pacific’, India has become the largest remittance-receiving country in the world in 2017, with migrant workers from the country sending home 69 billion US dollars. The remittances to the Asia-Pacific region amounted to 256 billion dollars last year. In 2017, India with $69 billion, China with $64 billion and the Philippines with $33 billion are the three largest remittance-receiving countries in the world. Worldwide, an estimated 40% of the total values of remittances go to rural areas. However, in the Asia-Pacific region, remittances go dis-proportionally to countries with a majority of rural populations such as Nepal 81%, India 67%, Vietnam 66%, Bangladesh 65%, Pakistan 61% and the Philippines 56%. As per report, cash-to-cash transactions remain by far the most common form of transfer.