India at top in global remittances, Pak at fifth place at 19.8bn: World Bank

India topped the list of countries of remittances receiving nations despite an 8.9 per cent drop, according to a World Bank report.

The report said that the remittances to developing countries decreased for a second consecutive year in 2016, a first in three decades.

Pakistan came out at the fifth place with the figure of 19.8 billion, a 2.8% growth compared to 12 % in 2015.

Major downfall in oil prices and budget cuts in oil-exporting countries in the Middle East were the main reasons behind the decrease, as the region has a considerable Indian migrant population which sends significant amount of remittances back home, the report said.

Despite being at the first place, India had the biggest remittance inflows decline of $62.7 billion last year.

The latest edition of the Migration and Development Brief said that the officially recorded remittances to developing countries stood at $429 billion in 2016, down 2.4 % compared to $440 billion in 2015.

The number for global remittances shrunk by 1.2% to $575 billion in 2016, compared to $582 billion in 2015.

The downfall in remittances valued in US dollar came out even lower due to a weaker euro, British pound and Russian ruble against the US dollar, resulting in many large remittance-receiving countries experiencing significant declines in remittance flows.

The second in the list is China ($61 billion), followed by the Philippines ($29.9 billion), Mexico (28.5 billion).

As a share of the gross domestic product (GDP), the top five in the list were Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, Liberia, Haiti, and Tonga.

The South Asian region saw a decline by 6.4 % in 2016 due to record-low oil prices and fiscal tightening in the Gulf countries, the report said.

"An increase of only 2.0 % is expected in 2017. Bangladesh's remittance growth in 2017 is forecast at 2.4 %, India's at 1.9 %, Pakistan's at 1.4 %, and Sri Lanka's at 1.3 %," it said.