REMITTANCES: Trickle-down economics

Migrants are less fickle sources of cash than foreign creditors

APThe last redoubt of cross-border finance

QUEUES of migrant workers waiting to send money to their families hardly present globalisation at its most glamorous. But such remittances made up more than a fifth of the GDP of some countries such as Jamaica, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova and Tajikistan in 2007.

Data compiled by researchers at the World Bank suggest that remittances may have another virtue that is less widely appreciated. Although they are likely to fall as a result of the slumping world economy, they may be less fickle than more publicised private-capital flows, such as equity and lending by foreign banks. Read More