International Technical Meeting on Measuring Remittances January 24-25, Washington D.C.

1. International Technical Meeting on Measuring RemittancesJanuary 24-25, Washington D.C. Neil Fantom World Bank http://www.worldbank.org/data

2. Background • Sea Island Summit, June 2004: call for G8 countries to work with international agencies and others to improve data • G7 Finance Ministers: call for international working group to improve remittance statistics • Clarify and revise definitions and concepts • Better guidance for cost-effective data collection • Improvement of “bilateral” estimates

3. Purpose of meeting • Gain better understanding of the request, and the needs of users • Review existing frameworks and ongoing work (what are the gaps?) • Review constraints and problems faced by countries in collecting data • Develop an appropriate work program, coordinated with existing initiatives

4. Who attended? • International organizations: • WB, IMF, UNSD, OECD, Eurostat, ECB, ADB, IADB • Countries and Territories • Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, The Philippines, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Uganda, US, UK • Mostly data practitioners, plus policy advisers

5. Policy issues • Important because they are: • Large (particularly for developing countries) • Stable: can cushion shocks • Providing direct benefits for households • Better statistics needed to: • Improve financial infrastructure (e.g. by reducing transaction costs) • Understand impact on poverty • Measure trade in relation to GATS Mode 4

6. Priority needs • Priority #1: aggregate estimates • Priority #2: estimates of flows between countries • Priority #3: data from household surveys • For development policy, interest is in household-to-household transfers resulting from movement of people across borders

7. Frameworks, ongoing work • Balance of Payments • Currently no partner detail • Not always reported by countries, or not reported according to definitions • Trade in Services: Technical Subgroup on Movement of Natural Persons – Mode 4 • Looking at remittance statistics issues • Linkage with GATS/Mode 4 is problematic • Migration statistics definitions

8. Country presentations • Different methods e.g. • “modeled” using demographic data and estimates from household surveys • Banking records • Most countries have problems • Coverage (e.g. reporting thresholds) • Lower priority for estimating remittances than other items • Difficulty in classifying residents/non-residents

9. Use of surveys • Studies conducted by Asian and Inter-American Development Banks • Household surveys of both remittance senders and receivers • Difficulties: • Sampling of senders (rare event problem) • Coverage and response issues • Cost?

10. Conclusions and way forward • BoP is the appropriate conceptual framework for aggregates • “satellite” analysis may be needed • TSG has the right people, timetable, process to improve concepts: • but need to de-link from GATS/Mode 4 • Need for a “City Group” • improved methods • WB/IMF/UN to report on progress by September