India remains Top Recipient of Remittances

India has topped the global list of remittances with $71 billion in 2013. The data has been published by the World Bank, which put China at No. 2 spot with $60 billion in remittances, followed by the Philippines ($26 billion), Mexico ($22 billion), Nigeria ($21 billion), and Egypt ($20 billion).

Other large recipients of global remittances, included Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Ukraine. Interestingly, if we look at the data in 2012, Tajikistan received 48% of its GDP from remittances, which is a whopping figure. Kyrgyz Republic too received 31% of its GDP from remittances. Nepal and Moldova received 25% and 24% of their GDP from global remittances.

According to Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, “For a country like Tajikistan they constitute half the GDP. For Bangladesh, remittances provide vital protection against poverty”. He further added when a nation’s currency weakens, inward remittances rise and the same happened with India. The World Bank report has revealed that India and China alone will account for nearly one-third of total remittances to the developing world this year.