World Bank released Migration and Development Brief

World Bank on 13 April 2015 released Migration and Development Brief. In 2014, India continued to be highest recipients of remittance.

The top five remittance recipient countries, in terms of value of remittances, continue to be India, China, Philippines, Mexico and Nigeria.

The top five migrant destination countries continue to be the United States, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Report said that the remittances to the developing world are expected to reach 440 billion US dollar in 2015, an increase of 0.9 percent over the year 2014. Global remittances, including those to high income countries, are projected to grow by 0.4 percent to 586 billion US dollar.

The 2015 remittance growth rates are the slowest since the global financial crisis in 2008-09. Nonetheless, the number of international migrants is expected to exceed 250 million in 2015, and their savings and remittances are expected to continue to grow.

The slowdown in the growth of remittances in 2015 will affect most developing regions, in particular Europe and Central Asia where flows are expected to decline by 12.7 percent in 2015.

The positive impact of an economic recovery in the U.S. will be partially offset by continued weakness in the Euro Area, the impact of lower oil prices on the Russian economy, the strengthening of the US dollar, and tighter immigration controls in many remittance source countries.

The global average cost of sending 200 US dollar held steady at 8 percent of the value of the transaction, as of the Quarter 4 (Q4) of 2014. Despite its potential to lower costs, the use of mobile technology in cross-border transactions remains limited, due to the regulatory burden related to combating money laundering and terrorism financing.

International remittances sent via mobile technology accounted for less than 2 percent of remittance flows in 2013.

In addition to sending money to their families, international migrants hold significant savings in their destination countries. Diaspora savings attributed to migrants from developing countries were estimated at 497 billion US dollar in 2013.