Bank of Italy

The data on foreign workers' remittances report the transfers of money sent abroad by foreign workers by means of payment institutions or other authorized intermediaries without using bank accounts (settlement in cash).

Published data are updated quarterly; since 2016 data are available on a quarterly basis with the breakdown by receiving foreign country; on an annual basis they are available with the additional detail of the Italian province where the sender is located.

Data

Foreign workers' remittances in 2023

In the fourth quarter of 2023, remittances sent abroad by foreign workers in Italy decreased by 2.4 per cent compared with the same period of the previous year (Table 1).

Annual contraction was overall mild, equal to 0.4 per cent; the reduction of the flows towards Sub-Saharan Africa Asia (-7,8 per cent) and European countries (-4.7 per cent) was broadly compensated by the increase in the flows towards Central and Southern America (+4.9 per cent) and, to a lesser extent, Asia and Northern Africa and the Near East (+0.9 and +0.8 per cent, respectively).

The three main recipient countries of remittances from Italy in 2023 were again Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Philippines, which absorbed respectively 14.3, 8.3, and 7.3 percent of total flow (Table 2).

With respect to 2021, outgoing flows of remittances decreased or remained stable in all the main regions, except Tuscany. Almost a half of the remittances sent abroad originated from the three most important regions in terms of flows: Lombardy (22.6 percent; Table 3), Lazio (14.9 percent), and Emilia-Romagna (10.4 percent); flows from the provinces of Milan and Naples directed towards Sri-Lanka and Georgia contributed the most while the main drag came from the provinces of Naples and Rome towards Bangladesh (Figure 1).

Table 1: Foreign workers' remittances

(millions of euros, percentage changes, percentage points)

Table 1