India is the largest recipient of remittances in 2021

According to a report by World Health Organisation (WHO), India became the top recipient of remittances in 2021. India received US$ 87 billion remittances, despite the Covid19 pandemic (which led to travel restrictions and the economic slowdown). The top 5 recipients of remittances, as per the report, were India, China, Mexico, Philippines and Egypt. In 2021, both China and Mexico received US$ 53 billion worth of remittances, followed by Philippines (US$ 36 billion) and Egypt received US$ 33 billion of remittances.

The WHO report stated that in 2020, substantial amount of remittances received were from the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, which were the largest source countries.

The report highlighted that a major challenge to continuous growth in remittances, besides COVID-19, was that fiscal stimulus programmes in remittance receiving countries cannot be extended for ever. Nevertheless, it predicted that remittances will continue to grow in the present year. It also shared that around 1 in 8 people around the world, or around 1 billion people were migrants.