Money transfers decrease in Moldova in last April, after clear tendency of rise in first quarter

Chisinau, 27 May /MOLDPRES/ - The money transfers from abroad via licensed banks to private people dropped by 7.2 per cent in last April against the same period of the year before, after increasing by 13 per cent in the first quarter, for the first time in the last two years.

In April 2017, private people received financial means with equivalent net value of 86.25 million dollars. Although the clear tendency of rise, registered earlier this year, was inverted last month, the value of remittances in the four months exceeds by 6.9 per cent the level of 2016. As much as 338 million dollars in net value was transferred through banks in January-April this year.  

Data by the National Bank of Moldova (BNM) for last April confirm fears of experts from the National Institute of Economic Researches, who were estimating that the increase in transfers in early 2017, after a drop of 30 per cent and 4.5 per cent in 2015 and, respectively, in 2016, was a positive signal. Yet, the experts also said they were not sure that this evolution would be maintained, given that more and more families settle abroad.      

“The fluctuations of the exchange rates of the original currencies against the U.S. dollar contributed with two per percentage points to the overall decrease of transfers in April 2017, while the effective diminution of transfers (by eliminating the effect of the exchange rate through recalculating the sums at the rate of the concerned period of the last year) stood at 5.2 per cent,” the National Bank said.

A half of the transfers were made in dollars (50.8 per cent), 39.7 per cent in euros and 9.5 per cent in Russian roubles.   

The transfers of financial means from abroad to private people (resident or non-resident) represent the sums of money sent to Moldova through the national banking system, including via international money transfer systems. The net transfers contain the balance between inflows and outflows. The gross transfers contain the sums of transfers through the systems of remitting money issued to private persons. The gross transfers amounted to 359 million dollars in the first four months of 2017.   

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)