  Anisotropic emission of gravitational waves (GWs) from inspiralling compact
binaries leads to the loss of linear momentum and hence gravitational recoil of
the system. The loss rate of linear momentum in the far-zone of the source (a
nonspinning binary system of black holes in quasicircular orbit) is
investigated at the 2.5 post-Newtonian (PN) order and used to provide an
analytical expression in harmonic coordinates for the 2.5PN accurate recoil
velocity of the binary accumulated in the inspiral phase. We find that the
recoil velocity at the end of the inspiral phase (i.e at the innermost stable
circular orbit (ISCO)) is maximum for a binary with symmetric mass ratio of
\nu~0.2 and is roughly about ~4.58 km/s. Going beyond inspiral, we also provide
an estimate of the more important contribution to the recoil velocity from the
plunge phase. Again the recoil velocity at the end of the plunge, involving
contributions both from inspiral and plunge phase, is maximum for a binary with
\nu~0.2 and is of the order of ~180 km/s.
