According to the Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011, remittances to LDCs were resilient during the global crisis, and expected to increase further in 2011-12. Top remitters in 2009 were the USA, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Russia, and Germany. Top recipients in 2010 are India, China, Mexico, Philippines, and France. Remittances are more significant for smaller countries in GDP terms. While high-income countries remain the main source, migration between LDCs exceeds that from LDCs to OECD countries.

In the last 4 months, DFI participated in 5 major advocacy events around the BWI Annual Meetings, wrote the independent International Development Cooperation Report for the UN, increased cooperation with CSOs and international organisations to hold donors accountable for aid, continued its path-breaking analysis of MDG-related spending by low-income countries... Read more.

A Joint UNCTAD and OECD report on G20 investment measures finds that G20 countries have honoured their commitment to resist protectionism, but calls upon them to remain vigilant in light of intensifying protectionist pressures. 

DFI has been funded by Connect US to partner with the African Economic Research Consortium, Brookings Institution, New Rules for Global Finance and the University of Missouri/Kansas City to ensure that low-income and African countries' voices are heard in the G20, US administration and Financial Stability Board on how global financial regulation can best promote their development. The project will involve a combination of research, analysis and advocacy during 2010-11. The project was discussed preliminarily at a seminar at the BWI Annual Meetings on 9 October. More details here. For the video of the Financial Governance Panel click here.

The UN has produced the first International Development Cooperation Report, an independently authored analysis of trends in aid quantity and quality, mutual accountability and transparency, South-South cooperation, policy coherence for development and the need to reform the global development cooperation architecture. The report, which was commissioned from DFI by UNDESA, was preliminarily launched at a side-event of the MDG Summit on September 21, of which the summary is now available online.

With an estimated annual financing requirement of US$93 billion until 2020, this Economic Brief identifies huge opportunities and benefits from investing in Africa's infrastructure. Policy priorities include the mobilisation of foreign private capital (noting the importance of especially South-South FDI with reference to China), and alternative domestic and regional private sources in the form of infrastructure bonds (e.g. Kenya), Sovereign Wealth Funds (e.g. Libya), and commodity-linked bonds.

Information on CEMLA's Remittances Programme may be found here. In addition to technical background documents, the site makes available country reports that cover issues such as economic context; institutional and legal framework; characteristics of recipients and providers; means and channels of payment; costs, disclosure, transparency and consumer protection information; and compilation methodology. These are presently available for Barbados, Bolivia, Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Honduras.

AfDB finds that second quarter stock market gains in Ghana (18%), Kenya (14%), Uganda (14%), Nigeria (9%), Côte d'Ivoire (9%), Morocco (8%), and Tunisia (5%) reflect growing optimism about international recovery in the financial markets, in spite of small losses in Mauritius, Egypt, and South Africa.

This paper confirms neoclassical theory that LDCs tend to experience net capital inflows and more developed countries net capital outflows, when accounting for the degree of capital account openness, and various country characteristics. Findings are driven by FDI, portfolio equity, and to some extent by loans to the private sector.

The June edition is now available online, covering annual data for 2007-9 and monthly data for February, March and April 2010. It includes data broken down by country on commercial bank assets and liabilities positions, deposit and lending rates, and reserves; private sector bond issues; and the operations of the regional stock exchange (BVRM) including the number and value of securities listed and traded, market capitalisation, and BVRM and Composite Indices. The Bulletin presents information in both French and English.