Expatriate Bangladeshis will remit home $14 billion in the current fiscal, according to the World Bank. The latest issue of the Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, released in Washington on Wednesday, said expatriates across the world would send home a total of $534 billion in 2012. It added that remittance flow to the developing world is expected to exceed $406 billion this year, an increase of 6.5 per cent over the previous year.

Hans Timmer, Director of the bank’s Development Prospects Group, said in a statement, “Although migrant workers are, to a large extent, adversely affected by the slow growth in the global economy, remittance volumes have remained remarkably resilient, providing a vital lifeline to not only poor families but a steady and reliable source of foreign currency in many poor remittance recipient countries.”

The global lender estimates India will top the list of remittance receivers as its expatriates will remit over $70 billion in 2012, followed by China ($66 billion), the Philippines and Mexico ($24 billion each) and Nigeria ($21 billion).

If the World Bank’s brief forecast proves to be correct, Pakistani expatriates will remit home the same amount of money as Bangladeshis this year. Other large recipients include Nigeria, Egypt, Vietnam and Lebanon, according to the Brief.  Last year, Bangladesh stood eighth in the list.

As per Bangladesh Bank data, expatriates had remitted more than $12.16 billion in the last financial year, which was around $1.16 higher than the previous year.

According to estimates, remittances to developing countries will grow by 7.9
per cent in 2013, 10.1 per cent in 2014 and 10.7 per cent in 2015 to reach $534 billion in 2015.

News: The Daily Independent/Bangladesh/24-Nov-12