Sending Money Home. Leveraging the Development Impact of Remittances
Inter-American Development Bank, October 18, 2006
Remittances sent to Latin America and the Caribbean from all parts of the world are expected to be more than $60 billion in 2006, surpassing both the amount of official development assistance and foreign direct investment to the region. Money transfer costs have been reduced by over 50 percent. Remittances constitute one of the broadest and most effective poverty alleviation programs in the world, reaching approximately 20 million households in the LAC region alone.
The challenge now is to help leverage the economic development impact of remittances. For this reason, the MIF recently commissioned a comprehensive survey of remittance senders and receivers to focus on the development potential of these flows. This survey also updates information gathered in 2001 and 2004, which analyzed the characteristics of remittance senders and receivers and studied remittance markets between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean.
>> View Article | created on: 10/20/2006
