World Bank: 1,800,000 Belarusians working abroad

According to the World Bank, the poor countries will face fall in remittances from expatriates due to the global crisis.

As the World Bank forecasts, remittances from expatriates to developing countries is expected to increase by 6.7 per cent and reach USD 283 billion this year. Economic slowdown in the West as well as in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine will cause decline in remittances from working migrants. The World Bank expects a considerable fall in 2009–2010, Radio Svaboda reports.

The top-10 recipients list also includes India, China, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, and Romania. China is expected to receive USD 30 billion and Poland – USD 11 billion.

Transfers from abroad are sometimes an important source of material support of the developing countries. For instance, remittances amount to 45 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Tajikistan, and 38 per cent of the Moldova’s GDP.

Belarus is a more modest against this backdrop. In 2006, USD 334 million, or o.9 per cent of the GDP, were transferred to the country. The same sum of money was recorded a year before.

The World Bank states there are 1,800,000 working immigrants from Belarus, or 18.4 per cent of the country’s population. Ten most popular countries where Belarusians work are Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, the United States, Israel, Germany, Latvia, and Estonia.