QURGHON TEPPA, December 26, 2008, Asia-Plus – The global financial crisis has resulted in labor migrants’ remittances to Tajikistan decreasing.
The source Eskhata Bank’s branch in Qurghon Teppa said that remittances to their bank have decreased by more than 40 percent. “Before the financial crisis monthly remittances to our bank amounted to some 8 million dollars, while at present they have reduced to 4-4.5 million dollars to our bank,” the source said.
“Our main clients on remittances are labor migrants, and therefore, we attribute decrease in remittances to the financial crisis that has hit some Russian enterprises and probably they have not paid wages or dismissed labor migrants,” the source said.
In the meantime, an article “Cash flow from Tajik migrants stalls” posted on The New York Times website on December 25 noted that flows of migrant money to developing countries, known as remittances, began to slow this fall, the first moderation after years of double-digit growth, according to the World Bank. The slowdown is expected to turn into a decline of 1 to 5 percent in 2009, when the full effect of the crisis hits.
Mr. Dilip Ratha, a senior economist at the World Bank who tracks migrant money flows, was cited as saying that there is definitely a serious moderation in the growth of remittances. The decline will be less severe than for other flows, like foreign investment, Mr. Ratha said, but its effects will be amplified in countries like Tajikistan that have come to depend on rapidly growing remittances. The country will rank first in the world in 2008 for remittances as a portion of its economy — 54 percent — according to an estimate by the International Monetary Fund. “The Tajik economy is not sustainable without migration,” Mr. Ratha said. “It is not diversified. People are the most important resource they have.”
