New Delhi: India has cemented its position as the world’s top recipient of remittance by recording $80 billion in money sent home in 2018. According to the latest World Bank report, it has recorded a 22.5 per cent jump from last year’s figure. India is also one of the world’s top exporters of labour.
As reported by Arab News, China came in second with $67 billion, followed by Mexico and the Philippines with $34 billion each, and Egypt with $26 billion.
Improvements in remittances have also been recorded in other South Asian countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan — 17.9 per cent and 6.2 per cent in 2018 respectively.
The increase has been attributed to “stronger economic conditions in advanced economies,” as well as healthy outflows from some GCC countries like the UAE, which reported a 13 per cent growth in outflows for the first half of 2018, by World Bank Migration and Development Brief.
For India, the UAE is one of the major sources of remittances, where around three million Indian expats are based — the largest among the country’s foreign national communities.
According to a report by the Reserve Bank of India, 26.9 per cent of total remittances to the country came from the UAE, followed by the US at 22.9 per cent and Saudi Arabia at 11.6 per cent.
According to Khaleej Times, the remittance growth rate during the past three years in India is $62.7 billion in 2016 to $65.3 billion in 2017.