Remittances from labor migrants in Russia exceed Tajikistan’s annual budget

DUSHANBE (TCA) — The amount of money sent home by Tajik labor migrants from Russia in January-September of this year exceeded Tajikistan’s annual budget, Avesta news agency reported.

During the first nine months of this year, Tajik labor immigrants in Russia sent home US $2.49 billion, a 7-percent growth on-year.

According to Tajikistan’s Finance Ministry, the country’s state budget in January-November 2019 amounted to 20.568 billion somoni or more than US $2.1 billion according to the official exchange rate of the Tajik National Bank.

The total state budget of Tajikistan for 2019 from all sources of financing is 23.7 billion somoni or more than US $2.448 billion.

That means that during the first three quarters of this year, Tajiks working in Russia sent home the amount exceeding their home country’s annual budget.

It was earlier reported that remittances from labor migrants abroad account for more than 75 percent of all income of Tajikistan’s population.

Sergey Kwan

TCA

Sergey Kwan has worked for The Times of Central Asia as a journalist, translator and editor since its foundation in March 1999. Prior to this, from 1996-1997, he worked as a translator at The Kyrgyzstan Chronicle, and from 1997-1999, as a translator at The Central Asian Post.
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Kwan studied at the Bishkek Polytechnic Institute from 1990-1994, before completing his training in print journalism in Denmark.

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