Remittances to low- and middle-income countries are projected to have grown a strong 7.3 percent to reach $589 billion in 2021. This return to growth is more robust than earlier estimates and follows the resilience of flows in 2020 when remittances declined by only 1.7 percent despite a severe global recession due to COVID-19, according to estimates from the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief released on November 17, 2021.
For a second consecutive year, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries (excluding China) are expected to surpass the sum of foreign direct investment (FDI) and overseas development assistance (ODA). This underscores the importance of remittances in providing a critical lifeline by supporting household spending on essential items such as food, health, and education during periods of economic hardship in migrants’ countries of origin.
At this online seminar, Dilip Ratha, Lead Economist, Migration and Remittances and Head of KNOWAD, presented the main points of the report.
Date/Time:
8am-9am, Tuesday December 7, 2021 (Japan Standard Time)
Speaker:
Lead Economist, Migration and Remittances and Head of KNOMAD, World Bank
Dilip Ratha is head of KNOMAD and lead economist, Migration and Remittances, Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice at the World Bank. In a career spanning three decades, he has done pioneering work on remittances, migration, and innovative financing (diaspora bonds, future-flow securitization, shadow sovereign ratings). His TED talk, with over 1.4 million views, has inspired many fintech start-ups. He is the Founder of KNOMAD, Migrating out of Poverty Research Program Consortium, and African Institute of Remittances. Prior to the World Bank, he worked at Credit Agricole Indosuez W.I. Carr Securities (Hong Kong and Singapore), and the Policy Group (Delhi), and taught at Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) and Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi). He has a Ph.D. in economics from Indian Statistical Institute.
Presentation material:
Recovery COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens (PDF)
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