Workers' remittances debits in the Spanish Balance of Payments

Workers’ remittances debits in the Spanish Balance of Payments record the transfers made by immigrants living in Spain to their families in their origin countries in order to cover their feeding, healthcare or education expenses, among others.

Workers’ remittances are estimated from the information that payment system providers (also known as remittance companies) facilitate to the Servicio Ejecutivo de la Comisión de Prevención del Blanqueo de Capitales e Infracciones Monetarias (SEPBLAC). An estimation is added to the above information to consider the transfers made through other channels. The result is regularly checked with the main counterpart countries. The estimation methodology can be found in The Balance of Payments and the International Investment Position methodological note.

For many receiving economies, remittances represent an important and stable source of income which sometimes exceeds the official development aid or the foreign direct investment. In addition, they have a significant impact in poverty reduction and in financing development.

Next, annual data for the remittances sent from Spain are presented according to the main destination (they can also be found in table 17.6a from the Statistical Bulletin). In the first graph, the evolution of the level of remittance debits to the main counterpart countries is observed. In the second, remittance debits by continent are presented. In both visualizations, the user can filter by continent by clicking on each one.

In the following link, you can download the statistical series used in the construction of these visualizations.