In its  Migration and Development Brief released yesterday, the World Bank said officially recorded remittances to the developing world were expected to reach US$440 billion in 2015, an increase of 0.9% over the previous year.

It said global remittances, including those to high income countries, were projected to grow by 0.4% to US$586 billion.

The World Bank said the 2015 remittance growth rates were the slowest since the global financial crisis in 2008/09.

“Nonetheless, the number of international migrants is expected to exceed 250 million in 2015, and their savings and remittances are expected to continue to grow,” it said.

The World Bank said the slowdown in the growth of remittances this year would affect most developing regions, in particular Europe and Central Asia where flows were expected to decline by 12.7% in 2015.

It said the positive impact of an economic recovery in the U.S. would be partially offset by continued weakness in the Euro Area, the impact of lower oil prices on the Russian economy, the strengthening of the US dollar, and tighter immigration controls in many remittance source countries.

The World said that in line with the expected global economic recovery next year, the global flows of remittances are expected to accelerate by 4.1% in 2016, to reach an estimated US$610 billion, rising to US$636 billion in 2017.

It said remittance flows to developing countries were expected to recover in 2016 to reach US$459 billion, rising to US$479 billion in 2017.

The World Bank said the top five migrant destination countries continued to be the United States, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

It said the top five remittance recipient countries, in terms of value of remittances, continue to be India, China, Philippines, Mexico and Nigeria.

Source: The Edge Markets