Monday, February 22, 2010
Home
National
Sports
Business
Lifestyles
Religion
Arts & Culture
Pulse
Spice
Editorial
letters
Opinion
Foodie
Sportscope
Real Talks
Weekend Report
PDF's
Classifieds
Contact
About Us
Archive
Weather
| |
||
|
||
 |
||
|
|
||
Letters | Opinion | Editorial | Weekend Report |
|
 |
|
Remittances to The Bahamas grow 25 percent By Inderia Saunders ~ Guardian Business Reporter ~ Inderia@nasguard.com: Remittances to The Bahamas have increased around 25 percent in the last year, a top money transfer company has confirmed — an indicator of increasing need for financial help in a nation that usually does the sending. It comes as the Omni Money Transfer company notes a dollar value decline in remittances from this nation. "We've seen a near 25 percent increase in remittances to The Bahamas and of course 90 percent of all is coming from the U.S.," CEO Harvey Morris told Guardian Business. It's a trend that have raised some eyebrows at the money transfer business, with Operations Manager Christoph Fox explaining that the shift is out of the norm from what's usually expected. "The Bahamas is one of those countries where we don't have many transactions coming in," said Fox. "We term them sending countries and receiving countries, where receiving countries heavily rely on remittances as a big part of their revenue. "The Bahamas is not one of those countries. We tend to send more money outside of the country because of our large migrant population as opposed to being a country that receives a lot of transactions." That's something that has changed in the last year as Bahamians themselves grapple with growing unemployment amidst high costs of living. It's also like one of the primary factors leading a decline in the amount of money being sent out of the country. While Morris and Fox both note the volume remains constant, the amount of money that people are sending out of the country has been slash by tightening economic conditions. "There are smaller transfers now," said Morris. "Previously we would see a transfer of $2500, generally for funerals or bail, but now we're seeing transfers of $20, $30 and $100, which is indicating a need. "In context, people may not have two jobs anymore or they are working less days here, but there's still a need for support in their respective countries." His statements come as Central Bank projections indicate the start of a turnaround to pre-recession days won't come anytime before the second half of 2010.
Tuesday February 09, 2010 |
|
 |
|