Third, the Ministry of Finance, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, and Bank of Ghana, together with their development partners like the World Bank, need to come to a judgment as to whether or not remittances are likely to be a permanent phenomenon in Ghana’s Balance of Payments (BoPs). Drawing on the experience of other countries which have managed significant inflows of remittances (Bangladesh, El Salvador, Jordan) could be an important starting point. Also, conducting a comprehensive survey to assess the actual scale of remittances and labour migration would help the authorities develop a well-defined strategy to maximize the benefits of remittances while minimizing any negative repercussions.
Only a third of Filipino and Indonesian workers in Hong Kong are able to use their remittances for savings, while only 5.8% use them for business investment, a University of Alberta study finds
Remittance in 2020: Bangladesh third largest recipient thedailystar.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thedailystar.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
This includes countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan and Tajikistan, where remittances accounted for at least 40 per cent of current account credits even before the outbreak of the pandemic, it added. For poor countries, a significant drop in remittances represents bad news on top of an already challenging economic and social situation, the EIU said.
In October, the World Bank said global remittances would fall 14 per cent by 2021 compared with pre-Covid-19 levels in 2019. The Washington-based lender projected global remittances would decline 7 per cent to $508 billion in 2020 and 7.5 per cent to $470bn in 2021. Remittances fell about 5 per cent following the 2008 global financial crisis.