WB sees remittances falling to developing nations: The News

WASHINGTON: The global recession is curbing income flows to developing countries from workers living abroad this year, with Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa hardest hit, the World Bank said Monday.

The World Bank projected remittance flows to developing countries would decline by 7.3 percent in 2009, to 304 billion dollars.

In 2008 remittance flows surged by 15 percent to 328 billion dollars.

Remittances slowed considerably in the fourth quarter last year, the development lender said in a report, after the global financial crisis accelerated following the collapse of Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers in September.

"Remittances are relatively resilient because, while new migration flows have declined, the number of migrants living overseas has been relatively unaffected by the crisis," it said.

The meltdown in the US real estate sector, the epicenter of the global crisis, was expected to reduce by 6.9 percent remittances for the Latin America and Caribbean region.

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