OREANDA-NEWS. August 15, 2014. The share of money transfers from private people working in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, especially Russia, dropped by 3.1 percentage points in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) down to 12.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2014 against the fourth quarter of the last year, according to an inflation report launched by the National Bank of Moldova (BNM).

Thus, forecasts by economists anticipating a cut in the remittances from Russia, following the completion of the works at the Sochi Olympic compound and Moscow introducing tougher conditions for stay in Russia, have come true.

The diminution of transfers from the CIS member countries led to a two-percentage points reduction of the share in the GDP of the transfers and incomes of private persons working abroad, BNM also said.

About 59 per cent of the money sent home by migrants in the first quarter came from CIS countries, and 41per cent - from states described as the rest of the world. On the same period of 2013, the ratio was 67.6 per cent to 32.4 per cent.

According to BNM, the money transfer from abroad by private people exceeded the pre-crisis level in the first half of 2014. The money inflows by transfers through the Moldovan banking system reached 768 million dollars in January-June, this year. In 2008, - a year which preceded the following financial and economic crisis, the Moldovans working abroad sent home 755 million dollars. Statistics according to regions from which the transfers came in the first half of 2014 will be unveiled in the next inflation report.