Thursday, 6 March 2008

Fiji in the top 10 remittance receiver

Fiji Times on Line
Thursday, March 06, 2008

SUVA (Pacnews) Fiji was one of the top 10 remittance recipients in 2007 in the East Asia and Pacific region.

Pacnews reports Fiji is estimated to have received $247million (US$165m) in inward remittances in 2007.

This was the same as the previous year, the report revealed.

However, the report said that the true size of remittances including unrecorded flows through formal and informal channels, is believed to be larger.

The report noted that the acting deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Barry Whiteside, had highlighted that remittances to Fiji in 2006 amounted to $313million (US$210m).

It said that the discrepancy between this figure and the data reported in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) balance of payments statistics needs further investigation.

The top 10 remittance recipients in 2007 (for East Asia and Pacific) are as follows: China ($US25.7b), Philippines ($US17b), Indonesia ($US6b), Vietnam ($US5b), Thailand ($US1.7b), Malaysia ($US1.7b), Cambodia ($US0.3b), Mongolia ($US0.2b), Fiji ($US0.2b) and Myanmar ($US0.1b.)

The top 10 remittance recipients in 2006 (percentage of GDP) included: Tonga (32.3 per cent), Philippines (13 per cent), Kiribati (9.9 per cent), Vietnam (7.9 per cent), Mongolia (6.8 per cent), Solomon Islands (6.3 per cent), Fiji (5.8 per cent), Cambodia (4.1 per cent), Vanuatu (2.8 per cent) and Indonesia (1.6 per cent).

The tertiary educated emigration rate in 2000 ranged from Tonga 74.2 per cent, Samoa 66.6 per cent, Fiji 58.7 per cent, Marshall Islands 41 per cent, Vietnam 39 per cent, Federated States of Micronesia 36.4 per cent, Palau 30 per cent, PNG 28.2 per cent and Kiribati 24.9 per cent.

The bank uses the data in a range of activities including work on labour mobility and cost of sending remittances through financial institutions.

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