International Transactions in Remittances: Guide for Compilers and Users

The IMF's Statistics Department, together with a group of experienced compilers referred to as the “Luxembourg Group”, has prepared International Transactions in Remittances: Guide for Compilers and Users (RCG). The link to the text of the RCG is presented below.

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Chapter 1. Background and Purpose of the International Transactions in Remittances: Guide for Compilers and Users

Chapter 2. Understanding Remittances: Demography, Transaction Channels, and Regulatory Aspects

Chapter 3. Concepts and Components

Chapter 4. Data Sources and Estimation Methods

Chapter 5. Compilation and Data Processing Issues

Chapter 6. Dissemination Issues

Appendix 1. Glossary of Terms

Appendix 2. Data Quality Assessment Framework: Generic Framework

Background

The Sea Island Summit of the G-8 Heads of State in June 2004 recognized the growing importance of cross-border remittances and the need to improve data in this area. In response to the G-8 request, an international meeting of data users and compilers was held in Washington D.C. in January 2005, to agree on a work program to improve data on remittances. Agreement was reached that the balance of payments represented the appropriate framework for improving the estimation and reporting of remittances data. The meeting proposed the creation of a "city group" of experienced compilers to prepare a set of best practices for remittance statistics in a compilation guide.

The first meeting of the city group was held in Luxembourg (and thus called the "Luxembourg Group”) in June 2006, with participation from 14 countries, and with the IMF, World Bank, and Eurostat constituting its secretariat. The group agreed to collect and prepare material that would allow the IMF to publish a compilation guide for remittances. This work was completed in December 2008.

For questions relating to remittances data, please contact the IMF at remittances@imf.org.