Remittances to India likely to drop in 2016: World bank

Remittances to India are likely to see a drop of 5 per cent in 2016 at $65.5 billion due to impact of declines in commodity prices on resource-rich economies, a World Bank report has said.

"In 2016, remittance flows are expected to decline by 5 per cent in India and 3.5 per cent in Bangladesh whereas they are expected to grow by 5.1 per cent in Pakistan and 1.6 per cent in Sri Lanka," the report stated.

In 2015, India received $69 billion as remittances from the World Bank.

The demand for developing countries' exports is limited by the slow recovery in industrial economies and the impact of declines in commodity prices on resource-rich economies, while the benefits to many commodity importers have been eroded by declining remittances, the report said.

"Remittances continue to be an important component of the global economy, surpassing international aid," said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director of the World Bank's Global Indicators Group.

"This, in turn, can seriously impact the economies of many countries around the world bringing on a new set of challenges to economic growth," he said.

--IANS

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