EXAMPLES OF DATA COMMENTARY FROM THE REAL WORLD
EXAMPLE 1.
From The World Bank Migration and Development Brief 24
“Migration and Remittances: RecentDevelopments and Outlook
Special Topic: Financing for Development”
1.2 Global remittance trends and outlook
Officiallyrecordedremittanceflows to developingcountries are estimated to havereached $436 billion in 2014, an increase of 4.4 percentover a year ago (Table 1 and Figure 2). Flows to developingcountries are projectedto slow down to 0.9 percentgrowth in 2015 (to $440 billion), owing to a weakeconomicoutlook in remittance source countries in Europe and Russia. Flows are expected to accelerate in 2016, and reach $479 billion by 2017 in line with the more positive global economicoutlook. Global remittancereceipts, including by bothdeveloping and high-incomecountries, are estimatedat $583 billion in 2014, and could rise to $586 billion in 2015 and $636 billion in 2017. Remittancesremain a key source of funds for developingcountries, far exceedingofficialdevelopmentassistance and evenforeigndirectinvestment (excluding China). Theyhaveprovedto be more stablethan private debt and portfolio equityflows (Figure 2). A recentanalysisreported in the World Bank’s Global EconomicProspects 2015 shows thatremittances are alsoless volatile thanofficialaidflows. Annualremittances are alsolargerthan, or equal to, foreignexchangereserves in many small countries. Even in large emergingmarkets, suchas India, remittances are equivalent to atleast a quarter of totalforeignexchangereserves.
India, China, Philippines and Mexico retainedtheir position as the top recipients of migrantremittances in 2014 (see Figure 3). Remittancesas a share of GDP are larger in small economies, particularly in Central Asian countries and Pacific islands (see Figure 3) – e.g., about 49 percent of GDP in Tajikistan and a quarter of GDP in Tonga. This high dependency on remittancesincreasesthesecountries’ vulnerability to shocks from remittance-sendingcountries.
EXAMPLE 2
From The World Bank Migration and Development Brief 25
“Migration and Remittances: RecentDevelopmentsand Outlook”
2. RemittanceCosts
2.1 Global Trends and outlook for remittancecosts
2 Trends in the cost of remittances
According to RemittancePrices Worldwide (RPW), the global averagecost of sendingremittances (includingallfees and charges) was 7.68 percent in secondquarter of 2015, remainingessentiallystablecompared to the previousquarterwhen the averagewas 7.72 percent, and below8percent for the fourth consecutive quarter (see figure 3). Thisrepresents a decline of approximately2percentagepointssince the level of 9.67 percent in the first quarter of 2009. Averagecostsremain far above the targets in recentdocumentsprepared for the Sustainable Development Goals (seebelow).
Over the sameperiod, the International Money Transfer Operators (MTO) Index, whichtracks the prices of money transfer organizationsthat are present in atleast 85 percent of corridorscovered in the RPW database, experienced a decline of 2.2 percentagepoints, from 10.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009 to 8.2 percent in the secondquarter of 2015.
Costsalsovary by the type of remittance service provider (RSP) used to make the transfer. Despiteconsiderabledeclines in the cost of transferringmoneythrough commercial banks in recentyears, banksremain by far the mostexpensive RSP type, with an averagecost of 11 percent in the secondquarter of 2015 (figure 4). Transfersdonethroughmoney transfer operators (MTOs) and post officestend to be muchcheaper and wererecorded to cost, on average, 6.6 percent and 5.1 percent of the amountsent, respectively, in the secondquarter of 2015.
The cost of sendingremittancesvariesquitesignificantlyamongregions: the averagecost of sending $200 in the secondquarter of 2015 was the lowest in South Asia (5.7 percent), whichrepresents a marginaldecline from the previousquarter (figure 5). The cost of sendingremittancesdeclined in allregionsduring the last quarter, with thenotableexception of the Latin America and Caribbean region (LAC) region, wherecosts rose from 6.1 to 6.8 percent. Despitedeclines in the recentquarter, the averagecost of sending $200 stillexceeds8percent in East Asia and Pacific (EAP) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Although Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) experienced the largestdecline in costsamongdevelopingregions in the last year – from 11.55 in the secondquarter of 2014 to 9.74 in secondquarter 2015, itremains the mostcostlyregion in the world to sendremittances to.