DUSHANBE, December 5, 2013, Asia-Plus — According to information posted on Economic News TJ’s account in Facebook on December 3, more than 19 billion U.S. dollars have been remitted to banks in Tajikistan over the past decade.
Economic News TJ notes that the information about money transfers for the period from 2003 to 2013 (January-June) is based on data of the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the Ministry of Finance, the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), as well as the data posted on Russian central bank’s website.
Thus, according to Russian central bank’s website, 834.8 million U.S. dollars have been remitted to banks in Tajikistan in 2006. In 2007, this figure increased to 1.632 billion U.S. dollars.
In 2008, 2.5163 billion U.S. dollars have been remitted to banks in Tajikistan, in 2009 – money transfers reportedly fell to 1.7245 billion U.S. dollars following the global economic and financial crisis.
In 2012, 3.6342 billion U.S. dollars have reportedly been remitted t0 banks in Tajikistan, which amounted to 47 percent of Tajikistan’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Over the first half-year of 2013, 1.678 billion U.S. dollars have reportedly been remitted to banks in Tajikistan, which was 280.7 million U.S. dollars more than in the same period last year.
We will recall that in a report released in Dushanbe, the NBT head Abdujabbor Shirinov revealed on July 23, 2013 that Tajikistan will no longer release cash transfer data. According to him, the government stopped publishing information on the volume of remittances sent to Tajikistan in May. “I”d rather not talk about migrants” funds because this issue may be politicized,” Abdujabbor Shirinov said.
Meanwhile, the World Bank’s
Migration and Development Brief
, which was released on October 2, notes that remittances to Tajikistan are expected to exceed 4 billion U.S. dollars this year.
Remittances to Tajikistan are expected to decrease next year following economic slowdown in the Russian Federation.
