More than $62.7 billion in remittances was sent to India from other countries in 2016, according to a report by Pew Research Center based on World Bank data. However, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data indicated that remittances fell below $60 billion in 2016-17.
According to RBI, personal transfers between resident and non-resident households fell 6.8 per cent to $59.1 billion in 2016. The drop in remittances was attributed to the fall in oil prices and political turmoil in Arab countries.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States were the biggest source of remittances to India in 2016, according to Pew. While more than $12.5 billion was sent from the UAE, over $10.6 billion came from the United States. Saudi Arabia was the third highest source of remittances, at $10.2 billion. The other sources of remittances were below $5 billion.
Among nations that received the most amount of remittances from India were Bangladesh and Nepal, followed by Sri Lanka. While Bangladesh received $4 billion, the corresponding figures for Nepal and Sri Lanka were $9.7 million and $5.2 million, respectively.
Globally, there was a 1 per cent decline to remittances in 2016, amounting to $7 billion dollars — from $581 billion in 2015 to $574 billion in 2016.
India received the most remittances while the United States was at the top for outgoing remittances. In total, $138 billion was sent out of United States in 2016, most of which went to Mexico.
While India received the most remittances in the world in 2016, indicating its large migrant population, it was only 2.8 per cent of the GDP. In 2015, one-in-20 migrants worldwide was born in India. In the same year, 15.6 million people born in India were living outside the country, making India one of the top sources of migrant worker populations.
More than half of the Indian migrant population lives in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and the United States. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, remittances from the country to India in FY 2016 were $116,000 while remittances from India to Pakistan were $329,000.