Remittances Down by 22.8% in Q1’15

Money transferred from abroad to Georgia in the first quarter of 2015 declined by 22.8% year-on-year to USD 249.6 million, according to data released by the Georgian central bank.
 
Money transfers from Russia, the largest source of remittances for Georgia, were down by 43.6% y/y in January-March 2015 to USD 88.3 million.

There was also decline in remittances from Greece and Italy by 17.8% and 9.4% y/y to USD 40.2 million and USD 26.3 million, respectively, in the first quarter of this year.

Remittances from the U.S. stood at USD 22.1 million in the first quarter, followed by Turkey – USD 17.2 million; Israel – USD 6.7 million; Spain – USD 5.9 million; Germany – USD 5.8 million; Ukraine – USD 4.9 million.

Remittances declined by 2.45% y/y in 2014 to USD 1.44 billion, accounting for about 8.7% of country’s GDP.

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