Washington, July 13 (DPA): The worldwide recession has led immigrants in wealthy countries to cut back sharply on how much money they send back to their home countries, according to a World Bank report released Monday.
Remittances to developing countries jumped 15 percent in 2008 to $328 billion, but will plummet 7.3 percent in 2009, the World Bank predicted, revising its earlier forecast of a 5-percent decline this year.
But the World Bank said there were "emerging signs of a bottoming out" in the decline of remittance flows as the global economy begins to stabilise.
South American countries have been worst affected, due to the deep recession and rising unemployment in the United States. By contrast, remittances to South Asia and East Asia are expected to continue rising despite the economic slowdown.