By: Tony Best
At a time when Caribbean nations are continuing to feel the effects of the global economic slowdown and the impact of the financial crisis due to a slide in spending by tourists, high inflation and escalating joblessness, remittances from the Diaspora may turn out to be a financial lifeline, a silver lining.
According to World Bank estimates, the flow of money to families in the Caribbean from relatives living and working in the United States, Canada, Britain and elsewhere may increase by almost 25 per cent during the next three years.
When combined with their Latin American neighbors, remittances to Caribbean island-nations, coastal states and landlocked countries in the Western Hemisphere sub-region are likely to jump by 6.6 per cent this year; 7.9 per cent in 2013; and as much as 8.2 per cent the following year, according to the World Bank.
The Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Guyana, Belize, Barbados, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago are expected to receive the bulk of the $ $ 8 billion the English, French, Dutch and Spanish nations in the Caribbean are to receive in 2012-14. Caricom countries and their Latin American neighbors are expected to benefit from more than $215 billion in next the three years. That’s provided World Bank forecasts become a reality.
Remittances are the largest single sources of foreign exchange in Jamaica and Haiti. In all, Caricom states received more than $5 billion annually from their nationals.
“Remittances generally reduce the level and severity of power and frequently lead to higher human capital accumulation, higher health and education expenditures, better access to information and communication technologies, greater financial access, small business invest and entrepreneurship. The reduction of child labor and help households to be better prepared for adverse shocks such as drought, earthquakes and cyclones. “The World Bank stated
“Diaspora can be an important source of trade, capital, technology and knowledge for origin countries,” was the way the international financial institution put it recently.
According to World Bank figures:
Jamaica received $2.14 billion in remittances from national abroad in 2007; $1.8 billion in 2008; $1.9 billion the next year; and an estimated $2 billion in 2010.
Every year beginning in 2007, remittances to Haiti rose, going from $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion in 2008; $1.3 billion the following year; and $1.4 billion in 2010.
Guyana’s remittances inflows reached their highest point in 2007 when $283 million was sent home to relatives. They dipped slightly the following year, falling to $278 million, declining even more to $253 in 2009 but rebounded to $280 million in 2010.
In Barbados’ cases, remittances reached an all-time high in 2008, rising to $168 million from $147 million the previous year. As the financial crisis in the U.S. began to hit home, the amount sent to Barbados dropped to $149 million in 2009. However, they rose to an estimated $161 million in 2010, coming close to the record set a few years earlier.
In all Bajan nationals in North America, Europe, the Caribbean and Australia remitted $477 million during 2009-10. That sum surpassed the total sent back to the country in the three years before the financial meltdown in Wall Street occurred.
Belize with 50,000 its people abroad received $75 million in 2007; $78 million the next year; $60 million in 2009; and an estimated 88 million in 2010.
Trinidad and Tobago’s remittance receipts amounted to $109 million in 2008; $99 million the following year and $109 million in 2010.
“Remittances in 2009 and 2009 became even more of a lifeline to poor countries, given the massive declines in private capital flows, sparked by the economic growth,” said Dilip Rath, manager of the Migration and Remittance Unit of the World Bank. “However, high unemployment is prompting many migrant receiving countries to tight immigration quotas.” That development in turn slowed the growth of remittances.”
World Bank forecasts call for remittances to the Caribbean and Latin America to surpass the high water mark of $67 million sent back to the Western Hemisphere sub-region in 2008. This year it should reach $66 billion; $72 billion next year; and achieve a $77 billion record in 2014.
