The World Bank es-timates that some US$280 million would be remitted here this year, compared to US$253 million last
year. These figures were contained in the bank’s latest Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011, released on Tuesday. The bank warns, however, that remittances to the Caribbean could drop again if the United States’ economic and un-employment crises con-tinue. There was a 20 per cent drop in remit-tances to the Caribbean last year.The bank said that an estimated 432,900
Guyanese – 56.8 per cent of the resident population – live over-seas, mainly in the U.S., Canada, United
Kingdom, Suriname, Venezuela, Antiguaand Barbuda, the Netherlands and Brazil.
Of that number, 89 per cent are tertiary edu-cated. The bank said workers’ remittances coming into Guyana have shown a steady increase over the years, ranging from US$99 million in 2003 to US$274 million in 2008.
Remittances for compensation to employees amounted to US$4 million in 2007 and US$5 million in 2008. With regards to mon-ies being remitted from Guyana, the bank re-ported that between US$50 million and US$62 million were remitted between 2003 and 2007, and US$77 million in 2009.
Resilient source
Meanwhile, the bank said remittances to de- veloping countries were a resilient source of ex-ternal financing during the recent global finan-cial crisis, and record-ed flows are expected to reach US$325 billion by the end of this year, up from US$307 billion in 2009.
World remittances
The World Bank es-timates that, after re-covering by the end of this year, recorded re-mittances to developing countries will rise fur-ther in 2011 and 2012, possibly exceedingUS$370 billion in two years’ time.“Remittances are a vital source of finan-cial support that directly of
