NEW DELHI: India has emerged as the top recipient of remittances globally with its workers abroad sending in a whopping $21.7 billion back home in 2004, according to the World Bank.

In its report on `Global economic prospects' released here on Thursday, the bank said the inward remittances into India at this level during the year were higher than China's $21.3 billion, Mexico ($18.1 billion), France and the Philippines ($12 billion each).

Compared to the migrants from other South Asian countries, Indian workers abroad remitted back home over five to six times more than those in Pakistan ($3.9 billion) and Bangladesh ($3.4 billion).

Even globally, the remittances in 2005 are set to touch $232.8 billion as compared to last year's $225.8 billion in keeping with the increase in migration of workers across borders.

"Of this, developing countries are expected to receive $167 billion, more than twice the level of development aid from all sources,'' the report said. Remittances to developing nations were placed at $160.4 billion last year.

While the rise in remittances pointed to an increase in migration, the bank said it also had the capacity to generate significant welfare gains for the migrant workers and their families as also the home country. In fact, remittances could well be the largest window for external capital for many developing countries as the inward flows through the informal channels could equal at least 50 per cent of the official estimate, the report said.

"With the number of migrants worldwide now reaching almost 200 million, their productivity and earnings are a powerful force for poverty reduction,'' World Bank Chief Economist Francois Bourguignon said.

According to World Bank estimates, the increase in migrantion would result in the workforce in high-income countries going up by three per cent by 2025. This, in turn, would increase global income by 0.6 per cent, which works out to about $356 billion.

Out of the $162 billion going to new migrants, the bank has estimated that about $143 billion would go to the developing nations and another $51 billion to people in the high-income nations. In its report, the World Bank has asked the developing countries to enter into agreements with the nations to which their workers migrate. Such pacts should include provisions to improve the conditions under which they cross borders, seek and maintain employment and send a part of their earnings home, it said.

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