Citing Russian presidential aide, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency last month reported that Tajik nationals last year sent nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars from the Russian Federation to Tajikistan through money transfer system.
“To-date, more than 870,000 Tajik national have worked in Russia and 1.9 billion U.S. dollars has been sent through money transfer system to Tajikistan from the Russian Federation in 2016, which is equal to one-third of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP),” Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti on February24.
Recall, Tajikistan’s GDP last year stood at 54.4 billion somoni (equivalent to some 7 billion U.S. dollars).
According to the National bank of Tajikistan (NBT), remittances in the first six months of 2015 dropped by 32 percent in comparison to the same period in 2014. World Bank’s survey, Tajikistan Economic Update, found that the value of an average remittance fell 21 percent between May and September of 2015.
Labor migrants still remain a critical component in the economy of Tajikistan and remittances keep many families in the country above the poverty line. An estimated 800,000 Tajik seasonal workers travel abroad each year, primarily to Russia but also to neighboring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan,
Tajik government, however, stopped publishing information on the volume of remittances sent to Tajikistan in May 2103. In a report released in Dushanbe, the National Bank of Tajikistan (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.
