Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination
Topic: World Bank's Report on Global Remittances
Why in News?
- World Bank has released its latest Migration and Development Brief.
Key Highlights of the Report
- Despite COVID-19, remittance flows remained resilient in 2020, registering a smaller decline than previously projected.
- Officially recorded remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $540 billion in 2020, just 1.6 percent below the 2019 total of $548 billion.
- India received over USD83 billion in remittances in 2020, a drop of just 0.2 per cent from the previous year, despite a pandemic that devastated the world economy.
- In 2019, India had received USD83.3 billion in remittances.
- China is second in terms of global remittances in 2020. China received USD 59.5 billion in remittances in 2020.
- India and China are followed by Mexico (USD42.8 billion), the Philippines (USD34.9 billion), Egypt (USD29.6 billion), Pakistan (USD26 billion), France (USD24.4 billion) and Bangladesh (USD21 billion).
- Remittance outflow was the maximum from the United States (USD68 billion), followed by UAE (USD43 billion), Saudi Arabia (USD34.5 billion), Switzerland (USD27.9 billion), Germany (USD22 billion), and China (USD18 billion).
- Remittances outflow from India in 2020 was USD7 billion, against USD7.5 billion in 2019, according to the World Bank.
Drivers for the Steady Flow
- The main drivers for the steady flow included fiscal stimulus that resulted in betterthan-expected economic conditions in host countries.
- Shift in flows from cash to digital and from informal to formal channels.
- Cyclical movements in oil prices and currency exchange rates.
About the Report
- It is prepared by the Migration and Remittances Unit, Development Economics (DEC)- the premier research and data arm of the World Bank.
- The brief is produced twice a year.
- The brief aims to provide an update on key developments in the area of migration and remittance flows and related policies over the past six months.
- A remittance is money sent to another country by an immigrant.