As per the World Bank, India is the largest remittance receiving country in the world in 2016. Remittances received by top 4 countries in 2016 are given in table 1.

Table 1: Top Four Remittance-Receiving Countries in the World (US$ billion)

India                                                    62.7

China                                                   61.0

Philippines                                           29.9

Mexico                                                28.5

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Source: World Bank.

As per the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief 27 (April 2017), for the first time in recent history, remittance flows to developing countries registered a decline for two successive years. India, the largest remittance-receiving country worldwide, led the fall with a decrease of 8.9 per cent in remittance inflows. Low oil prices and weak economic growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is one of the major reasons for the fall in remittances.

The services sector is the major sector of the Indian economy in terms of the share in total GVA as can be seen in the following table.

Table 2: Share of Services Sector to total GVA

Note: Services includes Trade, hotels, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting, financial, real estate & professional services & public administration, defence and other services.

PE: Provisional Estimates Source: CSO

This was stated by Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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DSM/SBS/KA