DUSHANBE, December 13, 2011, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan, which is a major labor exporting country reportedly remains the world’s most remittances-dependent country.
According to the Migration and Development Brief 17, which was published on December 1, Tajikistan is in the head of the top ten recipients of migrant remittances as a share of gross domestic product (GDP). Tajik labor migrants reportedly remitted 2.3 billion U.S. dollars to banks in Tajikistan in 2010, which was 31 percent of the country’s GDP.
Among the top ten recipients of migrant remittances as a share of GDP are also Lesotho (29 percent of GDP), Samoa (25 percent), Moldova (23 percent), Kyrgyzstan (21 percent), Nepal (20 percent), Tonga (20 percent), Lebanon (20 percent), Kosovo (17 percent) and Salvador (16 percent).
According to the World Bank estimates, the volume of remittances to Tajikistan this year will increase to 2.7 billion U.S. dollars.
The new estimates show that the top recipients of remittances among developing countries in 2011 were India ($58 billion), followed by China ($57 bln), Mexico ($24 bln), and the Philippines ($23 bln). Other large recipients in US dollar terms include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Vietnam, Egypt and Lebanon. However, small and low-income countries such as Tajikistan, Lesotho, Nepal, Samoa and Tonga tend to receive more remittances as a share of their gross domestic product (GDP).
According to the report, officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries are estimated to have reached 351 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, an 8 percent increase over 325 billion U.S. dollars in 2010. In line with the World Bank’s latest outlook for the global economy, remittance flows to developing countries are expected to grow by 7.3 percent in 2012, 7.9 percent in 2013 and 8.4 percent in 2014, to reach 441 billion U.S. dollars by 2014. These forecasted rates of growth are considerably lower than those seen prior to the global financial crisis, when the annual increases in remittances to developing countries averaged 20 percent during 2003-08.
Migration and Development Briefs are prepared by the Migration and Remittances Unit, Development Economics (DEC) and Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) network. These briefs are intended to be informal briefing notes on migration, remittances, and development. The views expressed are those of the authors and may not be attributed to the World Bank Group.
