St Vincent receives US$42 million in remittances for 2017

REMITTANCES TO St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) for the year 2017 were US$42 million.

According to latest remittance inflow data from the World Bank, US$13.5 billion was sent back to the Caribbean alone by immigrants globally.

The latest World Bank study on Migration and Remittances said money transfers to low- and middle- income countries, including the Caribbean and Latin America, rebounded to a record level in 2017, after two consecutive years of decline.

Remittances are expected to continue to increase in 2018, by 4.1 percent to reach $485 billion. Global remittances are expected to grow 4.6 percent to $642 billion in 2018.

Remittances flows into Latin America and the Caribbean grew 8.7 percent in 2017, reaching another record high of nearly $80 billion.

The main factors given are stronger growth in the United States and tighter enforcement of US immigration rules, which may have impacted remittances as migrants remitted savings in anticipation of shorter stays in the United States.

Other Caribbean nations received much lower receipts in 2017 as follows: Dutch Sint Maarten – US$64 million Dominica – US$59 million St Lucia – US$32 million Antigua & Barbuda – US$31 million Kitts & Nevis – US$11 million Aruba – US$8 million Suriname – US$7 million Grenada – US$1 million (MENAFN)