Money transfers from Russia decrease

According to the statistics of the Russian central bank there is a clear tendency of money transfers from Russia to CIS countries decreasing. In the fourth quarter of 2008 USD 1.76 billion was transferred to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Ukraine, 1/3 less than in the previous quarter. In the first three months of 2009 there has been a further fall of 25%, so the fall for the last 9 months is around 50%.

The number of clients sending money is nearly the same, but the amount they transfer from Russia has dramatically decreased. 80% of transfers are made by labour migrants, so the tendency shows that their income is also decreasing.

In the CIS there are two major sources of transfers, Russia and Kazakhstan, while countries such as Tajikistan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan are net receivers of transfers. The GDP of the receivers is seriously affected by a decrease in transfers. These represent 45 % of the GDP of Tajikistan, 40% of the GDP of Moldova and 35% of Kyrgyzstan’s.

Labour migrants in Russia complain that sometimes they receive not only a smaller salary but no salary at all. Most of the labour migrants are working illegally in the first place and therefore have no legal right to ask for compensation, and the number of migrants from different CIS countries is decreasing accordingly. So-called seasonal workers, who used to travel to Russia for particular jobs, have now stopped doing so because there is no job available for them. In the first quarter of 2009 the number of labour migrants in Russia decreased by 13% to around 750,000.