Remittances sent home by migrants from low and middle-income countries to drop by 20% in 2020 - World Bank

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  Remittances sent home by migrants from low and middle-income countries to drop by 20% in 2020 - World Bank

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1. The amount of money migrant workers send back to their home countries is expected to decrease by almost $110bn this year as the Covid 19 pandemic increases unemployment across the world.
2. Remittances to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are projected to fall by nearly 20% to $445bn (£360bn).
3. Migrant workers were especially vulnerable to losing their jobs during coronavirus lockdowns which are still largely in place across the developed world.
4. Remittances total about three times the amount of aid received by low-income countries and have become a cornerstone of living standards across the developing world.
5. Migrants typically send money to their families to boost living standards in some of the poorest parts of the world, including south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and South America. 
6. Eastern Europe is expected to be one of the worst-hit regions as migrant workers in western Europe and Russia are forced to cut back the amounts they send back to families in Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and other former Soviet bloc countries.
7. Remittances alleviated poverty in lower- and middle-income countries, improved nutrition, were linked to higher spending on education, and reduced child labour in disadvantaged households.
8. Countries that are large recipients of remittances, such as India, have also imposed lockdowns, causing widespread unemployment and hardship, often making the situation even worse for families that suffer a decline in money being sent home.
9. Oil-dependent countries, which have seen crude prices tumble from more than $60 a barrel in January to less than $20 a barrel this week, have also been hit by the economic impact of the pandemic, limiting the amount of help they can offer poor families.
10. Last year, remittances reached an all-time high of $554bn. Next year, the World Bank expects a 5.6% recovery from the $445bn predicted this year to $470bn.
11. Remittance flows are expected to fall across all regions, most notably in Europe and central Asia, where the fall in income is expected to be 27.5%, followed by sub-Saharan Africa, with a 23.1% decline. For east Asia and the Pacific, which includes Indonesia and the Philippines, the fall is put at 13% .

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