Foreign remittances to Moldova increase following decline in early 2016

Chisinau, 29 April /MOLDPRES/-According to data of the National Bank of Moldova (BNM), the amount of money transfers to natural persons has almost reached the level of 2015 in March 2016, after decreasing by 13 per cent in the first two months of 2016, against the same period in 2015.

Natural persons (resident and non-resident) received 92 million dollars via Moldovan banks in March 2016, almost 2.2 per cent less than in March 2015. It is the highest level of 2016, however, much less than the amount of remittances sent to Moldova before the crisis.  

“Exchange rate fluctuations of original currencies against the US dollars accounted for 1.3 percentage points of the total decrease in transfers in March 2016. The actual decrease in remittances (without taking into account the exchange rate effect at the re-calculation of the amounts over the respective period of time in 2015) reached 0.9 per cent,” BNM states.

The amounts are recalculated as the original currency of the transfer is being exchanged into US dollars at the official rate of BNM on the day of the transfer. Both the provenience and origin of these amounts of money may be different. Besides the remittances of the Moldovan migrants working abroad, they may include currency transfers.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, “money transfers from abroad continue to be a significant source of income for Moldovan households. On average, remittances accounted for 17.4 per cent of the total income in 2015, 0.2 percentage points less than in 2014”.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)