Net remittances sent by migrants back to Kyrgyzstan reached record levels at the end of 2023, according to the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic (NBKR). The bank’s data shows that the record was achieved mostly due to a decrease in the outflow of money from the country.
Migrant workers transferred $2.7 billion to Kyrgyzstan in 2023. According to statistics maintained by the NBKR, this is 12%, or $380 million less than a year earlier. However, the outflow of money from Kyrgyzstan in 2023 amounted to only $561 million – half as much as in 2022. That put the net inflow of funds remitted back into the country at $2.145 billion — an all-time record.
At the beginning of 2024, the NBKR included in its statistics separate information on transfers made through bank cards and electronic wallets. According to the regulator, these methods of sending and receiving money to and from abroad are now actively used along with traditional money-transfer systems.
The NBKR report says that in 2023, the region from which Kyrgyz people transferred the most money was Russia, with $2.531 billion in remittances. The remaining $200 million came from a combination of the United States, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries. Russia accounts for more than 90% of all remittances to Kyrgyzstan. The lion’s share is comprised of migrant workers providing for their families at home.
In 2021, remittances accounted for over 30% of the GDP, making Kyrgyzstan one of most remittance-based economy in the world. Approximately one-fifth of the Kyrgyz labor force works abroad, almost exclusively in Russia.
It should be noted that remittances to Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries from the Russian Federation increased after the so-called anti-war emigration. According to the Russian media, the volume of remittances by individuals from Russia to CIS countries after the Kremlin’s attack on Ukraine in 2022 increased 2.5 times to $24.5 billion. The money was mainly transferred to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Georgia. However, in 2023 the volume of remittances decreased by 1.4%.
Meanwhile, the leader among Central Asian countries in terms of remittances is Uzbekistan. Labor migrants working in different foreign countries (mainly Russia) transferred more than $16 billion to this country in 2023. In Tajikistan, according to statistics, $5.7 billion was transferred last year – which is almost half of the republic’s GDP. The volume of remittances to Kazakhstan for the 2023 reporting period amounted to $670 million dollars, declining by more than half on the previous year. At the same time, Kazakhs withdrew three times more money from the country than they received from abroad in 2023.
