Increase of 1.4% from money sent to India in 2012.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The World Bank’s latest Migration and Development Brief indicates that India received $70 billion remittances over the course of 2013, topping every other nation in the world.
That number is just slightly less than what the World Bank estimated India would receive in a report from October of last year, in which it was said that India would likely get $71 billion in remitted money from Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and the family members of those in India. Even still, the $70 billion is an increase over the $69 billion that was sent to the subcontinent in 2012, for an increase of 1.4%.
“Remittances have become a major component of the balance of payments of nations,†said Kaushik Basu, World Bank’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, in a statement accompanying the report. “There is no doubt that these flows act as an antidote to poverty and promote prosperity. Remittances and migration data are also barometers of global peace and turmoil and this is what makes World Bank’s KNOMAD [Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development] initiative to organize, analyze, and make available these data so important.”
Out of India’s $70 billion in received remittances last year, about $65 billion of those came from the “country’s flagship software services export,†according to the World Bank. That number means that the Indian software industry was responsible for an incredible 92.8% of remittances sent to India.
Global remittances to developing countries, of which India is considered a part off, in 2013 totaled $404 billion USD, and is expected to hit $516 billion in 2016. Worldwide, all countries combined clocked $542 billion last year, which is expected to rise to $581 billion this year, and $681 billion in 2016.
Despite India’s robustness, however, south Asia as a whole saw its growth slow a bit in 2013. There was only a 2.3% rise last year, a paltry percentage when compared to the 13% that is normally seen from the region. Bangladesh, in particular, was singled out by the report for its decline of 2.4% in remittances received. Overall, $111 billion went to south Asian countries last year, but that number is expected to his $136 billion in 2016.
In terms of the overall charts, China came in second to India, with $60 billion in remittances. The Philippines was third, with $25 billion, Mexico was fourth with $22 billion, Nigeria was fifth with $21 billion, Egypt was sixth with $17 billion, Pakistan was seventh with $15 billion, Bangladesh was eighth with $14 billion, Vietnam was ninth with $11 billion, and the Ukraine was tenth with $10 billion.