Advanced economies overtake Gulf nations in share of remittances to India

Advanced economies such as the US, the UK, Singapore, Canada, and Australia together accounted for more than half of India's remittances in FY24, reflecting a shift in migration patterns

Insights from the Sixth round of India’s Remittances Survey 2023-24 shows that the US, UK, Singapore, Canada and Australia together accounted for more than half of remittances into India. This shows a gradual shift in dominance of India’s remittances from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries to the advanced economies.  The GCC countries - United Arab Emirates or the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain - contributed 38 per cent of the remittances. The share of the US in India’s total remittances remained the largest, rising to 27.7 per cent (23.4 per cent in 2021-22), followed by the UAE at 19.2 per cent (18 per cent) and the UK at 10.8 per cent (6.8 per cent). 

The Sixth round of the survey on inward remittances for 2023-24 was published in the Reserve Bank of India’s monthly bulletin of March 2025. It covered 30 banks (capturing around 99 per cent of the value of total inward remittances reported under the purpose of family maintenance and savings), two major money transfer operators and two fintech companies operating in cross-border remittance business. 

 

Data sourced from RBI's remittance surveys