DUSHANBE, October 3, 2013, Asia-Plus -- As a percentage of GDP, the top recipients of remittances, in 2012, were Tajikistan (48 percent), Kyrgyz Republic (31 percent), Lesotho and Nepal (25 percent each), and Moldova (24 percent), says the latest issue of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief .

According to the statistical data from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) of Tajikistan, physical entities remitted some 3.6 billion U.S. dollars to banks in Tajikistan in 2012.

Tajik authorities note that that not all this money was remitted by migrant workers.  The National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) says 30-35 percent of the overall volume of remittances sent to Tajikistan by physical entities is the money received from small export.

Meanwhile, the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief , which was released on October 2, notes that the developing world is expected to receive $414 billion in migrant remittances in 2013, an increase of 6.3 percent over the previous year.  This is reportedly projected to rise to $540 billion by 2016.

Globally, the world’s 232 million international migrants are expected to remit earnings worth $550 billion this year, and over $700 billion by 2016.

The top recipients of officially recorded remittances for 2013 are India (with an estimated $71 billion), China ($60 billion), the Philippines ($26 billion), Mexico ($22 billion), Nigeria ($21 billion), and Egypt ($20 billion). Other large recipients include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Ukraine.

Remittances to Tajikistan are expected to exceed 4 billion U.S. dollars this year.

Growth of remittances has reportedly been robust in all regions of the world, except for Latin America and the Caribbean, where growth decelerated due to economic weakness in the United States.

The Brief also highlights that the high cost of sending money through official channels continues to be an obstacle to the utilization of remittances for development purposes, as people seek out informal channels as their preferred means for sending money home.  The global average cost for sending remittances is 9 percent, broadly unchanged from 2012.