Today, money transfers are a natural and important process in the economy. The World Bank annually calculates the total amount of international transfers received between individuals around the world based on balance of payments data. The statistics include both private transfers to individuals and business, property or labor income transfers.
The main factor to this day remains the war in Ukraine. The Russian invasion adversely affected revenues in Central Asia. As well as the strengthening of the Russian ruble, which led to an increase in the cost of money transfers from Russia to Central Asia in dollar terms. In the case of Europe, a weaker euro showed the opposite result.
Money transfers in 2022 to Europe and Central Asia increased by 10.3%. This is also due to the increase in oil prices and sanctions. The increase in the indicator in Ukraine is estimated at 2%, because funds for Ukrainians were sent to those countries that accepted them.
The World Bank estimates the volume of remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 9.3%, southern Asia by 3.5%, the Middle East and North Africa by 2.5%, eastern Asia and the Pacific by 0.7%.
This year, India will record annual remittances above $100 billion for the first time.
Surprisingly, the US and China in the ranking of countries in terms of total remittances are far from the first place. China is in seventh place, Ukraine is in twelfth, and the US is only in twenty-sixth.