COVID-19 to cause US$31.4-54.3 bn remittance losses in Asia-Pacific

According to a recent report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), governments in the Asia-Pacific region need to chart out policy measures to reduce the economic and social fallout arising out of remittance losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. The region, which constitutes a third of the global migrant workforce (91 million) and accounts for a third of the global migrant workforce, is likely to suffer losses of about US$ 31.4-54.3 billion.

ADB’s August 2020 brief titled ‘COVID-19 Impact on International Migration, Remittances, and Recipient Households in Developing Asia’, states that the impacts of job losses stemming from COVID-19 will be particularly severe for Asia and the Pacific. “Migrant workers are more vulnerable from layoffs once prolonged lockdowns and production breaks drive companies out of business. Also, uncertainty looms about the timing of full recovery, even as lockdowns are lifted, with concerns about persistent weak demand in some economic sectors,” it said.

Besides major migrant origin countries such as Nepal and the Philippines, nations like Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan, sending a large number of seasonal and long-term migrants mainly to the Russian Federation and Europe, will also be hard-hit.