World Bank Estimates 2006 Remittances to Reach $199 Billion

The World Bank's Development Prospects Group, Migration and Remittances Team put together an interesting brief that is useful to us on the IPM team and everyone involved in the world remittance market.

An interesting observation from the brief is the following quote:

"Recorded remittances sent home by migrants from developing countries are expected to reach $199 billion in 2006, up from $188 billion in 2005, and more than double the level in 2001."

The gigantic sums involved in world remittances are of interest to developing countries who, with the correct systems in place, can harness the power of remittance transactions to fund development at all levels of the economy and empower the "Base of the Pyramid" (BOP) to self fund and rise into a viable and productive class bringing prosperity to the entire country.