Remittances Down by 22.7% in H1’15

Money transfers from abroad to Georgia in the first half of 2015 declined by 22.7% year-on-year to USD 538.63 million, according to figures released by the National Bank of Georgia on July 15.

Money transfers from Russia, the largest source of remittances for Georgia, were down by 41.1% y/y in January-June 2015 to USD 204.4 million.

Remittances from Greece, which is the second largest source of remittances for Georgia, declined by 19.3% y/y to USD 82.7 million in the first half of this year.

Money transfers from Italy was down by 12.3% y/y to USD 52.9 million, followed by the United States – USD 47.3m (up by 26.3% y/y); Turkey – USD 35.9m (20.6% y/y increase); Israel – USD 14.3m (37.3% y/y increase); Spain – USD 12.3m (10.3% y/y decline); Germany – USD 12.1m (8.6% y/y increase); Ukraine – USD 10m (38.5% y/y decline).

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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