OREANDA-NEWS. January 06, 2015. In November 2014, they amounted to USD106.42 million, down USD 28.95 million or -21.4% against November 2013, the National Bank of Moldova reports.

The decrease in the remittances has been connected with the general crisis and the drastic devaluation of the Russian Rouble in Russia, where most of Moldovans work. Expressed in USD and EUR, their wages have visibly shrunk. Interestingly, the RUB remittances have also reduced in the reporting period, although this summer they amounted to 40% of the total amount, and have given their place to EUR.

The share of EUR in November's remittances was 36.8%. The remittances in RUB and USD were 32.1% and 31.1% respectively. Last November, the shares of EUR, RUB and USD were 34.3%, 36.4% and 29.3% respectively. In January-November 2014, about USD 1 billion 337.76 million or 88.8% of all the remittances were transferred to Moldova through various rapid money transfer systems, NBM states. The total volume of the remittances sent from abroad to Moldovans was USD 314.14 million in Q1, USD 454.03 million in Q2 and USD 487.47 million in Q3, 2014.

As InfoMarket reported, in 2013 the amount of remittances sent from aboard to individuals of Moldova via commercial banks grew 7.7% to USD 1 billion 608.98 million. The greatest amount of the money - USD 158.14 million- was transferred to Moldova in October 2013, the smallest one being attributable to January and amounting to USD 98.95 million. In 2013 the RUB remittances made up 33.6% of the total amount, the USD and the EUR ones being 31.3% and 35.1% respectively. 68% of all the remittances were sent from Russia, NBM says. Remittances from Italy, Israel and the USA were 9.3%, 6.3% and 4.8% respectively. According to the World Bank, remittances from Moldova’s labour migrants reach 20% to 30% of GDP of Moldova. They reached their highest level ever in 2008, amounting to USD 1 billion 660.09 million.