India will retain its position as the world’s top recipient of remittances this year with its diaspora sending a whopping $80 billion back home, the World Bank said in a report on December 8. China is at second place ($67 billion), followed by Mexico and the Philippines ($34 billion each) and Egypt ($26 billion), according to the global lender.

The World Bank estimates that officially recorded remittances to developing countries will increase by 10.8 per cent to reach $528 billion in 2018. This new record level follows a robust growth of 7.8 per cent in 2017.

Global remittances - which include flows to high-income countries - are projected to grow by 10.3 per cent to $689 billion, according to the latest edition of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief.

The upsurge is driven by stronger economic conditions in advanced economies, particularly the US, and the increase in oil prices having a positive impact on outflows from some Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries such as the UAE, which reported a 13 per cent growth in outflows for the first half of 2018.

Bangladesh and Pakistan too experienced a surge of 17.9 per cent and 6.2 per cent in 2018, respectively, the report said.

India registered a significant flow of remittances from $62.7 billion in 2016 to $65.3 billion 2017. In 2017, remittances constituted 2.7 per cent of the country’s GDP, the report said.

As global growth is projected to moderate, future remittances to low- and middle-income countries are expected to grow moderately by 4 per cent to reach $549 billion in 2019. Global remittances are expected to grow 3.7 per cent to $715 billion in 2019.

Remittances growth for the GCC region is likely to slow down to 4.3 per cent. It will be mainly due to a moderation of growth in advanced economies, lower migration to the region and benefits from the oil price spurt dissipating. The GCC is a regional political and economic bloc comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.