Official data on private transfers are compiled by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) and published in the UK Balance of Payments (‘Pink Book’). Private transfers are recorded in the current transfers component of the current account of the BoP (table 5.1 current transfers–other payments by households debits). The ONS estimates remittances at 75 per cent. of the published total of private transfers. The data for the years 2003-5 are as follows:
2003 2004 2005 Outward Private transfers–total 3.84 4.08 4.62 Private transfers–remittances1 2.88 3.06 3.47 Inward Private transfers–total 2.71 2.67 2.72 Private transfers–remittances1 2.03 2.00 2.04 1 Estimated at 75 per cent. of the total
Alternative estimates of the size of UK remittance market can be found in the report of the UK Remittances Working Group1, established in 2004 by the Department for International Development (DFID).
1 Available at www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/uk-remittances-report .pdf