Remittances

A remittance is a transfer of money by a foreign worker to an individual in his or her home country. Money sent home by migrants competes with international aid as one of the largest financial inflows to developing countries. Workers' remittances are a significant part of international capital flows, especially with regard to labour-exporting countries. In 2014, $436 billion went to developing countries, setting a new record. Overall global remittances totaled $582 billion in 2015. Some countries, such as India and China, receive tens of billions of US dollars in remittances each year from their expatriates. In 2014, India received an estimated $70 billion and China an estimated $64 billion.

Remittances are playing an increasingly large role in the economies of many countries. They contribute to economic growth and to the livelihoods of less prosperous people (though generally not the poorest of the poor). According to World Bank estimates, remittances will total US$585.1 billion in 2016, of which US$442 billion went to developing countries that involved 250 million migrant workers. For some individual recipient countries, remittances can be as high as a third of their GDP.

Note: These are the largest 15 recipient countries of remittances only for the year 2013. World Bank data is used for all countries and years.

As a share of GDP, the top recipients of remittances in 2013 were Timor-Leste (216.6%), Tajikistan (42.1%), Kyrgyzstan (31.5%), Nepal (28.8%), Moldova (24.9%), Lesotho (24.4%), Samoa (23.8%), Haiti (21.1%), Armenia (21.0%), The Gambia (19.8%), Liberia (18.5%), Lebanon (17.0%), Honduras (16.9%), El Salvador (16.4%), Kosovo (16.1%), Jamaica (15.0%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (13.4%, which is about 1.817 billion $ on 31 December 2014).

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