DUSHANBE, January 5, 2014, Asia-Plus — In 2014, remittance flows from Russia to Tajikistan reduced to some 4 billion U.S. dollars while the remittances flows are expected to increase this year, Ms. Farida Muminova, the deputy head of the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Tajikistan, told journalists in Dushanbe on January 5.
We will recall that some 4.2 billion U.S. dollars were sent through money transfer system from Russia to Tajikistan in 2013.
A senior exert from Tajik think tank attributes the fall in the remittance flows to the depreciation in the value of the Russian ruble (RR).
To reduce the number of migrant workers Ms. Muminova proposes to develop the processing industry in the country that will create new jobs. “It is impossible to influence the migration trends artificially,” said she. “We must not shut down roads for labor migrants.”
Russia Federal Migration Service (FMS) says that more than one million Tajik labor migrants traveled to Russia last year in search of work. Tajik migration service agency considers that the figure has been overstated.
According to Russia’s central bank, 3.016 billion U.S. dollars has been sent through money transfer system to Tajikistan from the Russian Federation in the first nine months of this year, which was 29 million U.S. dollars, or almost one percent, fewer than in the same period last year.
Over the report period, Tajikistan took the second place among the CIS nations in terms of money transfer, and Uzbekistan was in the lead in this area as 4.592 billion U.S. dollars were sent there from Russia in January-September this year. Remittance flows from Russia to Uzbekistan have reportedly declined by 8 percent. 4.909 billion U.S. dollars were sent from Russia to Uzbekistan over the first three quarters of the last year, Russian central bank said.
Ukraine took the third place among the CIS nations in terms of money transfer over the first nine months of this year as 1.802 billion U.S. dollars have been remitted there from Russia in January-September this year – a 16 percent decline compared to the same period last year. 2.173 billion U.S. dollars were reportedly remitted from Russia to Ukraine in January-September last year.
