There is a new and unexpected force behind the global movement of money. Restaurant workers, taxi drivers and au pairs are increasingly stepping in where bankers and bureaucrats refuse to tread.

World Bank figures show that last year, for the first time, more money flowed from relatively poor migrant workers in rich countries than the combined total of government aid, private bank lending and IMF/World Bank aid and assistance.

The total value of these remittances to developing countries reached $80 billion, double the aid provided by rich nations. Sending money home dwarves the $16bn of net government and bank lending.

Migrant workers sending money home is not new. What is new is the scale and importance to developing countries.Today hundreds of millions of poorly paid people are propping up the finances of developing countries.

'In 1995, remittances amounted to only one-third of debt flows. Last year they completely dwarfed them,' said Philip Suttle, author of the World Bank's Global Development Finance report.