(MENAFN- Morocco World News) The World Bank expects the value of remittances recieved by the Maghreb to increase 'only modestly' in 2016 and 2017 compared to other regions according to the international banking organization's recent report titled the 'Migration and Development Brief.'
The report estimated on Thursday that the Moroccan diaspora community sent approximately USD 6.4 billion to their home country in 2015 making the kingdom the third-largest reciever of remittances amoung countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Egypt benefitted the most from remittances in 2015 the report said as the country recieved an estimated USD 19.7 billion from citizens living and working abroad last year – equivalent to 6.8 percent of republic's total GDP in 2014. Lebanon's remittances were the second-highest at USD 7.2 billion dollars. After Morocco at third place Jordan imported USD 3.8 billion from its expatriates with Yemen (USD 3.4 billion) Tunis (USD 2.3 billion) the West Bank and Gaza (USD 2.2 billion) and Algeria (USD 2 billion) receving progressively lesser sums of foreign-earned wages. The World Bank said its analysts decreased their growth forecast for remittances destined for the MENA region in 2015 from an increase of 1.6 percent as predicted last October to a decline of 0.9 percent due to the effect of chronically low global oil prices and the low value of the euro caused by Europe's weak economic recovery. The bank predicts remittances to MENA will increase at a modest rate of 2.6 percent in 2016 falling short of the four percent growth the region witnessed in 2014.
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