DUSHANBE, November 21, 2008, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan and Uzbekistan topped the CIS states in terms of remittances from the Russian Federation in the third quarter of this year, according to Russian central bank’s report.
The report in particular, said that compared to the second quarter remittances of physical entities from the Russian Federation to Tajik banks increased by 51 percent in the third quarter.
According to Russian central bank, Tajikistan Uzbekistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan accounted for 61.4 percent of the overall volume of cross-border transactions of Russia with the CIS states in the third quarter.
Tajik national news agency Khovar quoted Russian central bank as saying that 323 million US dollars were remitted from Russia to Tajik banks in July-September this year.
According to the Tajik State Committee for Statistics, remittances of physical entities from the Russian Federation to Tajik banks amounted to nearly 17 percent of the country’s GDP, which decreased 3 percent in the year to October 1 2008, amounting to 3.6 billion US dollars.
According to the World Bank estimates, Tajik migrant workers’ contribution to Tajikistan’s economy in 2007 amounted to 1.5 billion US dollars, which was 36 percent of the country’s GDP.
The Interior Ministry migration service says an estimated some 700, 000 Tajik seasonal workers travel abroad each year, primarily to Russia but also to neighboring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
