Bajan diaspora sends US$85m in remittances

Barbadians resident overseas sent US$85 million back home last year.

This is the same amount remitted annually over the past four years.

The information is shared in the World Bank’s latest Migration And Development Brief published this week, and a related analysis by its author, World Bank lead economist, migration and remittances Dilip Ratha.

Remittances counted for Barbados last year are higher than some of its Caribbean countries but is less than others.

These included Antigua and Barbuda US$35 million, Belize (US$142 million), Dominica (US$52 million), Grenada (US$69 million), Guyana (US$540 million), Jamaica (US$3.7 billion), St Kitts and Nevis (US$33 million), St Lucia (US$55 million), St Vincent and the Grenadines (US$70 million), and Trinidad and Tobago (US$202 million).

“The growth rate of remittances is expected to remain relatively strong in Latin America and the Caribbean region (3.3 per cent). Most of the senders of remittances to this region are based in the United States, where both the employment levels and wages of Hispanics and foreign-born workers and their wages have been strong,” Ratha said in relation to projections for this year.

The brief said that “after a record increase in remittances in 2021 (26.5 per cent), remittance flows into Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 11.3 per cent to reach US$145 billion in 2022”.

“The strong labour market in the United States had a positive impact on remittance flows during 2022. Remittances to Mexico reached US$61.1 billion in 2022, representing an increase of 12.9 per cent. Mexico receives the highest level of remittances in the region by far and is the world’s second-largest recipient of remittances,” it stated.

“The growth of remittances varied widely across countries in 2022, ranging from a rise of 50 per cent in Nicaragua to 18 per cent in Guatemala, 17.8 per cent in Honduras, and 9.7 per cent in Colombia.”

The outlook was that “inflows to Latin America and the Caribbean are anticipated to establish the strongest pace among developing regions during 2023, rising by 3.3 per cent to US$150 billion”.

“But with prospects tightly linked to developments in the slowing US economy, the risks are skewed to the downside. Increased transit migration through Mexico represents another important remittance source, as transit migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela – passing through Mexico on the way to the United States – receive funds from their families outside Mexico to support living and other expenses,” the World Bank added.

The top five recipient countries for remittances in 2022 were India (US$111 billion), Mexico (US$61 billion), China (US$51 billion), the Philippines (US$38 billion), and Pakistan (US$30 billion).

Ratha said the stock of migrants was likely to increase globally due to income gap, demographic change, and climate change.

“There is no doubt that during a crisis, remittances have emerged as a dependable financial lifeline in many economies through the pandemic and will continue to remain so. The need is to devise policies that can employ remittance flows for the development outcomes of the global south and north,” he explained.

“The World Bank has stepped up collaborations with source and recipient countries to improve data and remittances to mobilise private sector capital through diaspora bonds and globally improved sovereign ratings.” (SC)