ASTANA (TCA) — The number of money transfers received by residents of Kazakhstan from abroad increased by 130 percent year on year in May. The most popular currencies were the US dollar and Russian ruble, and the main source was Russia, according to Ranking.kz, a monitoring project dealing with the Kazakh economy in the rankings format.
The average amount of transfers exceeded KZT 200,000. However, the number of transfers abroad still exceeded the number of transfers received, by 72,800 transactions, despite a 10-percent decrease.
The amount of money sent abroad stood at KZT 28.5 billion, KZT 7 billion more than the amount of transfers to Kazakhstan.
The main reason for the increase in cross-border transfers is the depreciation of the national currency as the share of tenge-denominated transfers was 3.2 percent of the total value of transfers. The ruble accounted for over 50 percent of Kazakhstan’s money transfer market, while the US dollar, despite the decrease in its share, remained the most popular currency for money transfers abroad.
Due to geographical proximity the most popular destination for money transfers abroad and to Kazakhstan was Russia. Kazakh residents sent to Russia KZT 400 million more than they received. Central Asian countries also accounted for a sizeable share of money transfers: Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan jointly received almost a quarter of money transfers sent from Kazakhstan (24.8 percent) but sent less than 14 percent of money received by Kazakhstan.
Unlike Kazakhstan, other Central Asian countries (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) are largely dependent on remittances from their labor migrants working abroad, mainly in Russia.
