WHO Report: India was top remittance recipient in 2021 receiving $87 billion

India received 87 billion dollars in remittances in 2021, the top remittance recipient, and way ahead of countries like China and Mexico, according to a World Health Organisation report released on Wednesday.

Key points of the report:

China ($53 billion), Mexico ($53 billion), the Philippines ($36 billion) and Egypt ($33 billion) were the top five nations in the list. The United States was the largest source country for remittances in 2020, followed by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland. Remittances increase or maintain consumer spending and soften the blow of economic hardship, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the WHO World report:

The first WHO World report on the health of refugees and migrants said that today about one in eight people in the world, some one billion, are migrants.

The report by the specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health said that in 2021 the top five remittance recipients in current US dollars were India, China, Mexico, the Philippines and Egypt. With $87 billion, India was the top remittance recipient among low- and middle-income countries, as per 2021 estimates, way ahead of China and Mexico’s 53 billion dollars, the Philippines (36 billion dollars) and Egypt (33 billion dollars).

The economic recovery in 2021 followed the resilience of remittance flows seen in 2020, which declined by a modest 1.7 per cent to USD 549 billion in the face of one of the deepest global recessions.