Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – The amount of remittances sent by overseas Filipinos is estimated to grow six percent to $26 billion this year, making up over six percent of the $414-billion forecast global remittance level this year, the World Bank said in a report. The World Bank said the forecast top recipients of remittances for 2013 are India ($71 billion), China ($60 billion), the Philippines ($26 billion), Mexico ($22 billion), Nigeria ($21 billion), and Egypt ($20 billion). Other large recipients include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Ukraine. In its latest issue of the Migration and Development Brief, the global financial institution said the figure could have been bigger. “Several large remittance recipient countries such as Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Uruguay are no longer considered (by the World Bank) as developing countries,” the report said. In addition, the data on remittances also reflect the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) changes to the definition of remittances that now exclude some capital transfers, affecting a few large developing countries like Brazil. Growth of remittances has been robust in all regions of the world, except for Latin America and the Caribbean, where growth decelerated due to economic weakness in the United States. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Remittances in the East Asia and the Pacific region (including the Philippines) are expected to expand 7.4 percent in 2013 to $115.3 billion. The inflows would account for about 28 percent of total remittances to developing countries. Figures earlier released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Read More …