(Roughly) Daily

Every month Joy Kyakwita presses a button on her phone and does something in common with millions of other people across the globe: she sends money home.

Ms Kyakwita, a London-based lawyer, gives a third of her salary to her family back home in Uganda, including paying money for school fees for her brothers and nephews.

“I believe that when you pay for them to go on a good course, then there is a good chance of them becoming employable,” she says. “And if they are employed then they will be able to help their siblings as well.”

Ms Kyakwita is just one of an estimated 270m migrants around the world who will send a combined $689bn back home this year, the World Bank estimates. That figure marks a landmark moment: this year remittances will overtake foreign direct investment as the biggest inflow of foreign capital to developing countries.

Remittances were once viewed by many economists as a secondary issue for developing economies behind FDI and equity investments. Yet because of their sheer volume and  consistent and resilient nature, these flows are now “the most important game in town when it comes to financing development”, says Dilip Ratha, head of the World Bank’s global knowledge partnership on migration and development…

The money sent home by 270 million immigrants around the world now exceeds foreign direct investment. The Financial Times takes deep dive into “Remittances: the hidden engine of globalisation.”

(Remittances are painfully expensive for those making them– ranging around the world from over 5% to over 8% of all money transferred… money that goes to financial institutions as opposed to the intended recipients.  Here’s why.)

* Rebecca Johnson

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As we pass it on, we might note that today, September 9, is the most common birthday in the United States.

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