Poor Guyanese feeling squeeze from drying up of remittances
One in every ten people around the globe is directly associated with remittances. The U.S. is the largest remittance source country that witnesses outflow of $42 billion annually. Among the various regions of the world, Latin America has the largest and fastest growing remittance flow.
It received approximately 40% of remittances sent to developing countries. In fact, the remittance to Latin America exceeds the foreign investment and development aid.
The economy of Latin America depends largely on the remittances flow. The rapid increase in Latin America is gradually slowing with more Latin American immigrants adopting U.S. society and thus sending less money home.
The migrants who are earning in foreign locations remit on average 12.6 times a year. The average remit amount is in the range of US$150 to US$250 every time. These remittances are used by family, friends or relatives in the home country for their daily expenses. These remittances make up to 10% of their household income. A quarter of remitters usually send money they earned home first, prior to paying their own bills. The remittance rates have shown good growth in spite of a downfall in the U.S. economy.
The developing world was estimated to receive US$414 billion in migrant remittances in 2013, an increase of 6.3 percent over the previous year. This is projected to rise to US$540 billion by 2016.
Globally, the world’s 232 million international migrants are expected to remit earnings worth US$550 billion this year, and over US$700 billion by 2016, says the latest issue of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief. (Source: World Bank).
These statistics and information clearly show the important role remittances are playing in the lives of people of the Third World, particularly the poorer sections of society.
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