DUSHANBE (TCA) — The Central Bank of Russia has reported a sharp decrease in money remittances from Russia to Central Asian countries, Avesta news agency reports.
According to the latest data released by the Central Bank, during the first two months of this year $690 million was remitted from Russia to abroad (mainly post-Soviet countries of the CIS).
In January-February 2015, remittances from Russia amounted to $1.277 billion, by $587 million more than during the same period this year.
Of the total $690 million remitted in January-February 2016, $528 million went to post-Soviet countries.
The Central Bank earlier reported a sharp decrease in money remittances from Russia last year. In 2015, remittances totaled $9.719 billion, a 2.1-fold decrease compared to 2014 ($20.856 billion).
According to the Central Bank, money remittances from Russia to Central Asian countries in 2015 amounted to $6.065 billion compared to $11.949 billion in 2014.
Remittances from Russia to Tajikistan decreased more than threefold in 2015 compared to 2014 — from $3.831 billion down to $1.278 billion.
Remittances to Uzbekistan reduced more than twofold and to Kyrgyzstan twofold.
A sharp decrease in the amount of remittances was caused by decreasing number of labor migrants from Central Asian countries in Russia due to the ongoing crisis in the Russian economy, depreciation of the Russian ruble and consequent depreciation of labor migrants’ salaries in Russia.
Remittances from labor migrants working in Russia account for a significant part of foreign-currency revenues of Central Asian countries.
