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At $129 billion, India's remittances alone is nearly as much as the annual budgets of Pakistan ($67 billion) and Bangladesh ($68 billion) combined. It is also nearly double that of Mexico, which took the second spot on the highest remittances list.
As per the latest figures compiled by World Bank economists, India, which topped the list of recipient countries for remittances in 2024, received an estimated inflow of $129 billion. Mexico came second with $68 billion, China came third at $48 billion, the Philippines came fourth at $40 billion, and Pakistan came fifth at $33 billion.
India has steadily been receiving remittances of more than $100 billion each year for the last five years, except 2020 - when COVID-19 had peaked. That year India saw an inflow of $83 billion. The growth rate of remittances this year is estimated to be 5.8 per cent, compared to 1.2 per cent registered in 2023, according to a World Bank.
India has received such high remittances that it has even surpassed the Foreign Direct Investment or FDI inflows significantly, which, till the September quarter stood at $62 billion. Remittances also surpassed India's overall defence budget for 2024 by more than $55 billion.
In the last 10 years, India's overall remittances grew by 57 per cent. In total, between 2014 and 2024, India has received nearly $1 trillion dollars ($982 billion) only in remittances. The year-wise break-up being - $70 billion in 2014, $69 billion in 2015, $63 billion in 2016, $69 billion in 2017, $79 billion in 2018, $79 billion in 2019 $83 billion in 2020, $105 billion in 2021, $111 billion in 2022, $125 billion in 2023, and $129 billion in 2024.