Remittances Continued to Increase in August Driven by the EU

Remittance inflows increased by 7.8% YoY in August 2019 in USD terms, somewhat improved growth compared to previous two months. When expressed in EUR and GEL terms, the annual growth rates stood at higher 11.8% and 24.5%, respectively.

 The increase was mostly driven by the inflows from the EU (+24.3% YoY in USD) on the back of traditional source countries like Italy (+25.6% YoY in USD) and Greece (+16.9% YoY in USD). Among the other EU countries, remittances from Poland (+69.1% YoY in USD), Germany (+28.9% YoY in USD) and France (+44.5% YoY in USD) also increased significantly.

 As expected, somewhat similar to the tourism dynamics, remittance inflows started to recover from Turkey, following the declining tendency over the last 12 months. The improvement is likely to continue thanks to the low base effect and signs of recovery in Turkey. Also,  the growth continued from other major countries of origin, such as Israel (+8.1% YoY) and the USA (+1.5% YoY).

 At the same time, remittance inflows from the CIS went down by -4.9% YoY in USD terms, mostly due to the declining trend from Russia (-14.5% YoY in USD).

Find more information on TBC Research.