E32 - Business Fluctuations; CyclesReturn

The paper investigates the nature of cyclicality between remittances and the GDP in 11 remittance receiving countries over the period 1993-2015. The findings show that remittances towards transition countries seem to be rather procyclical, in 4 countries there is a downturn in remittances when GDP decreases and vice-versa. Only in one country remittances are found to be countercyclical. For the remaining 6 countries, no pattern of cyclicality is found, the character of remittances being assessed as acyclical. The final part of the paper discusses possible explanations for these findings focusing on possible correlation of the sending and receiving countries' GDP.