Kathmandu, April 10 -- Nepali migrant workers sent home $8.1 billion in 2018, making it the 19th biggest beneficiary of funds sent by migrants around the world, according to a report released by World Bank on Monday.

The remittances were up 16.39 percent year-on-year despite a drop in the number of departures. As a share of the gross domestic product for 2018, Nepal is among the top five recipient smaller economies, along with Tonga, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Haiti.

Five South Asian countries are in the top 20 list of biggest beneficiaries of remittances, with Nepal taking the fourth spot in the region. It is behind India ($78.6 billion), Pakistan ($21 billion) and Bangladesh ($15.5 billion) but ahead of Sri Lanka ($7.5 billion) i...