Overseas Indians sent home record $129.4 billion in 2024, with $36 billion in the December quarter alone
India has topped global remittances for over 25 years, driven by skilled migration to developed economies and the GCC. Despite inflation, remittances surged 63% since the pandemic, reaching nearly $100 billion for the third consecutive year.
STC NEWS DESK
NEW DELHI, APRIL 02 (STC): Indians working abroad have sent home a record $129.4 billion in 2024 with the highest ever inflows of $ 36 billion in the December quarter alone, shows a data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
According to the reports, India received over $ 100 billion as remittances for the third year in a row. Globally it has been among the top recipients for over 25 years since the information technology boom in the nineties and has been consistently occupying the top most place since 2008. This led to a surge in services exports skilled professionals’ migration from India to developed economies in North America and Europe resulting in them sending money to their family back home supplementing the traditional source of inflows from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)countries.
Notably, remittances are typically linked to employment conditions in the source country and migration pattern in the recipient country. A report published in the Economic Times reveals that India’s stock of international migrants has tripled from 6.6 million in 1990 to 18.5 million in 2024, with its share in global migrants rising from 4.3 per cent to over 6 per cent during the same period. Indian migrants in the GCC countries account for around half of the total Indian migrants in the world.
The report also quotes a recent survey on remittances published in the latest Reserve Bank of India’s monthly bulletin notes that “The competitive edge and the penetration of Indian IT services overseas at the start of the century, the number of skilled emigrants to advanced economies, especially to the US, has risen significantly. Thus, besides the GCC, advanced economies have also emerged as a major source of inward remittances to India over the years”.
In 2024, Mexico was at a distant second position with inflows estimated at nearly half of India’s at $ 68 billion and China was third which is estimated to have got $48 billion during the year. Significantly remittances grew 17.4 percent during the year compared to the global average estimated growth of 5.8 percent for the year.
Significantly remittances by the diaspora surged 63% since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. “The recovery of the job markets in the high-income countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been the key driver of remittances.” A World Bank blog said
Going forward, as per the report, remittances to India are are projected to increase to around $ 160 billion in 2029.
(STC)
