India tops global remittances at $62.7 billion in 2016 – World Bank

As per ‘Migration and Development Brief’ released by World Bank, India is world’s largest remittance recipient for the year 2016. Remittance inflows to India amounted to $62.7 billion in 2016. However, there has been a drop of 8.9% as compared to $68.9 billion received in 2015.

Remittance Scenario in India – 2016:

• Gulf countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have huge clusters of migrant Indian population who regularly remit money to India. Decline in remittances to India can be attributed to drop in oil prices and fiscal tightening in Gulf countries.
• In 2016, remittances accounted for 9% of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
• State wise, remittances to Kerala accounted for 36.3% of the net state domestic product.

Global Remittance Data – 2016:

• Global remittances amounted to $575 billion in 2016, which is a 2% drop as compared to $582 billion remitted in 2015.
• Remittances to developing countries amounted to $429 billion in 2016, which is a 2.4% drop as compared to $440 billion remitted in 2015.
• Remittances to South Asian region dropped by 6.4% in 2016.

Reasons for decline in Global Remittances in 2016:

• Drop in oil prices which affected Gulf countries.
• Weak economic growth in Russia and Europe.
• Nationalist policies adopted by Governments in developed countries which encourage employment of nationals over foreigners.
• Weakening of EURO, British Pound and Russian Rouble against the US dollar resulted in lower valuation of remittances emerging from non-US countries.

Top 5 Largest Remittance Recipients in 2016:

• Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, Liberia, Haiti, and Tonga are the top 5 countries in which remittances had highest share in GDP.
• For 2017, World Bank has forecasted 1.9% growth in remittances to India.