CAPE TOWN,  (Reuters) – Global remittances, a key  source of revenue for many developing countries, may fall 5  percent in 2009 after years of stromg growth, a World Bank  official said yesterday.   Millions of people in poorer countries depend on money sent  home by migrant workers, and risk further impoverishment should  the economic crisis result in further job losses in developed  nations.

“It might be that we will look overall at a decline of five  percent or something,” Massimo Cirasino, head of the payment  systems development group at the World Bank, told reporters.

“We don’t know really how much this will decline… but we  can conclude these flows are more resilient than any other flow.  You certainly don’t give up your support to your family… no  matter what happens,” he said.

A World Bank report released last month showed remittance  flows possibly declining by between 5 and 8 percent from an  estimated $305 billion in 2008, in contrast to double-digit  annual growth in recent times.

“If the crisis continues probably we will see more decline  (but) as we all hope, we will soon recover globally, then we can  expect these flows to continue,” Cirasino said.

He was attending a World Bank conference to suggest reforms  to the global remittance and settlement system, including ways  of extending financial services to more people.

There is a large untapped market of people who opt to send  cash home using taxi drivers or other informal intermediaries  instead of using the formal sector, partly due to red tape and  bank charges.