Private people of Moldova receive less and less money from abroad

Chisinau, 26 September /MOLDPRES/ - Private people receives less and less financial means from abroad through banks; the value of transfers made in January-August 2019 was of 802.8 million dollars, by over 50 million dollars less than on the same period of the year before, according to data by the National Bank of Moldova (BNM).  

In the first eight months of this year, the money transfers from abroad through licenced banks, sent to private people, recorded a 6.5-per cent decrease against the same period of 2018. BNM’s data also shows that, in January-August 2018 and 2017, an opposite tendency was registered, of increase by 12.4 per cent and 9.3 per cent, respectively.   

The pace of remittances’ diminution has tempered in the last two months, after a 14.1-per cent decrease in June 2019; in last July, the remittances dropped by one per cent and in August – by 2.6 per cent.

The National Bank said that, in August 2019, the fluctuations of the exchange rate of the currencies against the U.S. dollar contributed with two percentage points to the overall decrease of transfers from abroad to private people; yet, in fact (by removing the effect of the exchange rate through re-calculating the sums on the concerned period of the previous year), the transfers diminished by 0.6 per cent.   

Most money was received from private people of European Union member states, with a share of 46.3 per cent of all remittances in last August; EU is followed by states of the rest of the world, with a quota of 31.2 per cent and Commonwealth of Independent States, with a share of 22.5 per cent.

The structure of currencies in which transfers are made changed against the last year. About 54.5 per cent of all transfers for private people were made in euros in last August, up by 8.3 percentage points against the respective month of 2018; they are followed by transfers in U.S. dollar – 40.4 per cent, down by 5.8 percentage points and 5.1 per cent in Russian roubles, against 7.6 per cent in August 2018.

The National Bank noted that the transfers of money from abroad, made to private persons through banks, did not consist only of remittances by Moldovan citizens working abroad; they also include unilateral transfers, such as local transfers, including salary ones for resident private people from representations of non-residents, transfers to non-residents who temporarily stay in Moldova, pensions and allowances. The data include the discounts with banks from Moldova, without the banks from the left bank of Dniester.  

Data by the National Statistics Bureau on the incomes and expenses for 2018 shows that “the money transfers from abroad remain a significant source for  households’ budget. They account for an average of 15 per cent of all incomes or by 1.5 percentage points less against 2017.” Residents from village are more dependent on transfers from abroad than the residents of cities and towns; the share of these transfers in the overall incomes is of 20.4 per cent against 10 percent in the case of the urban population.