He predicts that the region will suffer the impact of the global downturn in several areas: manufacturing exports, remittances from workers living abroad, investments and financing.
The the country was hit by the U.S. and global recession at the end of 2008, losing export revenue, remittances, and other sources of aggregate demand.
If one considers labour as an export, then remittances are the part of the payment for exporting labour services that returns to the country of origin.
From the point of view of the source region, migration represents a "labour export," and remittances are payment for that export.
Somaliland relies mainly on livestock exports and remittances from overseas.
But the economy is built on clothing exports, and remittances from the Gulf.
The financial crisis hobbling the European Union, its chief trading partner, affects both exports and remittances from migrant workers.
In the case of the Philippines, long known for exporting labor, remittances are one of the few things the nation's economy has going for it these days, amounting to some $7 billion a year.
Asked Sunday what he had learned here, Obama said, "Even the most vociferous critics of the United States also want to make sure that the United States' economy is working and growing again, because there is extraordinary dependence on the United States for exports, for remittances.
Tajikistan's economy depends primarily on aluminum exports and remittances from Tajik expatriates, both of which are suffering in the current crisis.
