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Global Crisis

Stepping out of the comfort zone

Submitted by Sudharshan Canagarajah on Mon, 09/13/2010 - 19:19

Knowledge product innovation in ECA: The case of MIRPAL

It is almost eighteen months since World Bank Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region launched a program of knowledge sharing in the post crisis environment for countries heavily dependent on remittances and looking for ways to address the

vulnerability that emanated from the global economic crisis. For many Commonwealth of Independent State (CIS) economies in ECA region, which had seen high economic growth rates on the back of Russia’s economic boom, the global crisis and its impact on trade and remittance flows was an important shock. For many, neither the neither magnitude, nor trends of the remittance shock was clear, because the research and policy response has been very limited.

Migration and Remittance Trends 2009: A better-than-expected outcome so far, but significant risks ahead

Submitted by Dilip Ratha on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:06

With Sanket and Ani

We have just released Migration and Development Brief 11 (see accompanying presentation) reporting latest data on remittance flows. Newly available data show that officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries reached $338 billion in 2008, higher than our previous estimate of $328 billion. Based on monthly and quarterly data released by some central banks and in line with the World Bank’s global economic outlook we estimate that remittance flows to developing countries will fall to $317 billion in 2009. This 6.1 percent decline is smaller than our earlier expectation of a 7.3 percent fall.

By now it is clear that existing migrants are not returning even though the job market has been weak in many destination countries; instead they are staying on longer and trying to send money home by cutting living costs. New migration flows are lower due to the economic crisis, but they are still positive. We maintain our expectation of a recovery in migration and remittance flows in 2010 and 2011, but the recovery is likely to be shallow.