Key Points
Mumbai: Overseas Indians sent home a record $29 billion by way of remittances in the December quarter as steadily climbing returns from FCNR (foreign currency - non resident) instruments have made such savings plans more lucrative than bank deposits in the West...
To be sure, remittances are a source of permanent flows, unlike repatriable NRI deposits, and these help in narrowing the current account deficit (CAD), which has steadily shrunk as a percentage of India's gross domestic product (GDP)...
Net inward remittances, as reflected in the private transfers in the current account of the balance of payments, amounted to $29 billion during the quarter ended December 2023, showed the preliminary data published by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)..
India has been the biggest recipient of remittances from its diaspora ever since the software boom of the 1990s began transforming its technical talent landscape, and Asia's third-largest economy is estimated to have received more than $100 billion in inflows in 2023, World Bank data showed...
Besides a surge in services exports, higher remittances also contributed to help rein CAD at 1.2% of GDP in the December quarter, from 2% in the December 2022 quarter, an analysis of balance of payments data showed...
