Presentation/s:

30 April 2024

Joint ACDE Seminar

Speaker: Ryan Edwards, Deputy Director, Development Policy Centre

We combine new survey data with a market audit of remittance costs to examine the inward remittance market in Tonga, where remittances are almost equal to half of the country’s GDP. We find that, contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of low-cost options for remitting to Tonga and other Pacific countries, and that cost rankings are generally stable over time. Households’ remittance channel choices lead to higher realised costs due to the large gaps between high and low-cost service remittance service providers (RSPs).

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