India world’s largest remittance recipient in 2015: World Bank

According to the World Bank India named as the world’s largest remittance recipient in 2015 despite experiencing a $ 1 billion drop from the previous year, the first decline in its remittances since 2009.

Remittance trends of India:

• India reserved its top spot in 2015, attracting about $69 billion in remittances, down from $70 billion in 2014, the World Bank in its annual report ‘Migration and Development Brief’.
• Other large remittance recipients in 2015 were China with $64 billion, the Philippines ($28 billion), Mexico ($25 billion) and Nigeria ($21 billion).
• The global average cost of sending $200 was about 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, down slightly from the previous quarter and 0.6 percentage points below the end of 2014. Sub-Saharan Africa, with an average cost of 9.5 percent, remains the highest-cost region.

Regional Remittance Trends

East Asia and the Pacific

The region rose by 4.2 percent in 2015, down from 7.4 percent in 2014. Nevertheless, the region remained the top remittance recipient amongst all geographical regions.

 South Asia 

• This grew by 2 percent in 2015, down from 4.3 percent in 2014, due to a contraction in flows to India, the world’s largest remittance recipient, and Sri Lanka, despite a spike in remittances to Nepal in response to the earthquake.
• The region is expected to attract $123.3 billion in remittances this year, compared to $117.9 billion in 2015.

Europe and Central Asia 

Here it is contracting by 20.3 percent, due to the depreciation of the Russian ruble against the dollar and the slowdown in economic activity in Russia, a major source of remittances for the region.