India will continue to remain top recipient of remittance in 2018 as its people send as much as US $80 billion (Rs. 571000 crore approx) to their families living in the country as per the latest edition of the World Bank's Migration and Development Brief report released on Saturday.

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China with ($67 billion/Rs. 478212 cr approx.), Mexico and Philippines ($34 billion/ Rs. 242675 cr approx.) and Egypt ($26 billion/ Rs. 1613075 cr apx.) fall in line after India as per the same report. 

Estimations by the bank reflect that remittances to developing countries will increase by 10.8% which follows the increasing growth trend of 7.8% in 2017. There has been a tremendous amount of low upon comparing the last three years, from US $62.7 billion (Rs. 4475212 cr apx) in 2016 to US $65.3 billion (Rs 4660787 cr apx) in 2017.

The World Bank also said that remittance to South Asia might increase to 13.5% in 2018, way higher than 5.7% in 2017. The surge is a result of strengthened economic conditions in progressive economies, especially the States and the increase in fuel prices reflecting a positive impact on export from Gulf Cooperation Council countries, for example UAE which showed a 13% growth in the first half of 2018.

It is projected that in 2019, the remittance scale of the area will decrease to 4.3% due to stabilizing growth in advanced economies, lesser migration to Gulf Cooperation Council and additional benefits derived from the oil price vanishing. 

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a regional inter-governmental political and economic bloc of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The report also states that the worldwide average cost of sending US $200 (Rs. 1427500 cr) is at 6.9% in the second last quarter of 2018.

And as per Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), reducing remittance flows to three per cent by 2030 is a goal.