Sunday, November 18, 2007

Remittances revisited

Regular readers will be familiar with previous posts on the idea of remittances in general and into this province in particular. From our own government, we are still awaiting hard statistical data on the amount of money flowing into this province to replace the guesses out there now.

But in the meantime, the world marches on and the New York Times today has a piece on international remittances. They estimate international remittances at US$300billion saying:
People who track remittances have been starved for basic data. It is difficult to say exactly how much money is flowing and even harder to say where to, exactly. Sums large and small travel informally, through the mail or in the care of friends. The World Bank, the main tally keeper (in the form of a careful economist named Dilip Ratha), only counts transfers recorded by central banks. Last year’s sum came to $208 billion. Bank officials estimate that the global total is about 50 percent higher — $300 billion or more.
They also include this fascinating interactive graphic showing the money flows.

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