Snapshot of what living standards survey tells us about remittances in Nepal

Facts about Nepal Earthquake

A strong (7.8) earthquake hit Nepal in the area near Barpak, a mountain village between capital Kathmandu and tourist town Pokhara. The earthquake was followed by many powerful aftershocks and a very powerful one (6.7) hit Nepal on Sunday April 26.

The earthquakes caused extensive damage to buildings and thousands of deaths and injuries and was even felt in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

Many (historic) buildings collapsed, temples have been ruined, roads destroyed. Nearly 8000 deaths in Nepal and tens of deaths in India & Tibet. The quake was followed by more than 430 aftershocks and another huge earthquake (6.8) on May 12.

Understandably, there is a lot of interest on the impact of migration and remittances on the Nepalese economy, which receives remittances to the tune of 25% of GDP and was the third largest recipient (% of GDP) in 2011. I see a lot of numbers thrown around to justify various points (including illogical and inconsistent arguments), and I too get a lot of questions on the data and the impact on Nepalese economy.

Below is a chart showing remittances data sourced from Nepal Living Standards Surveys (NLSS). And yes, there are internal remittances as well!

More on remittances in Nepal here (dig in the archives for information, data and analysis!). A recent Al Jazeera news story here. And, here is a link to a research paper titled 'Remittances in Nepal: Boon or Bane?'.