Jamaican Research and Data

Industry Overview The remittance market continues to play an important role in the economic growth and livelihoods of people across the world. Remittance inflows in developing countries often constitute a significant share in their GDPs, and are much higher than development aid and much more stable than private capital flows. In 2018, the World Bank [1] estimated that US $689 billion was sent in global remittances , $528 billion of which was sent to developing countries. India has the largest inflows, with remittances estimated at $80 in 2018, followed by China ($67 billion), Mexico and the Philippines ($34 billion each), and Egypt ($26 billion). This figure is expected to grow by 3.7% to US $715 billion in 2019 . The largest money transfer providers in the remittance industry are Western Union, Moneygram, Transferwise, Paypal/Xoom and Ria. The graphs below, from analysis conducted by SaveonSend.com indicate that Western Union continues to dominate both traditional and digi

Remittances to Jamaica are primarily used for household expenses by the poorest quintile of the Jamaican population [1] . The World Bank states that Jamaica received over US $2.4 billion in personal remittances in 2017, which represents an average of 3% growth over the past ten (10) years (removing any outliers). Figure 1 below shows the trend in Jamaica’s personal remittances in today’s US Dollars from 1990 - 2017. Additionally, although the growth in personal remittances is small, it remains a significant contributing factor to Jamaica’s economy, as remittances represented 16.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2017 , as seen in Figure 2. Figure 1: Value of Remittances to Jamaica Source: https://www.gapminder.org/data/   [World Bank staff estimates based on IMF   balance of payments data and World Bank OECD GDP estimates] Figure 2 : Remittances to Jamaica as a % of GDP Source: https://www.gapminder.org/data/   [World Bank staff estimates based o