How Remittances from Russia to Armenia Decreased Over One Year

Remittances from Russia to several countries of the CIS decreased by 36% in December 2023 compared to December 2022, amounting to $627.6 million. This is reported by RIA Novosti, citing statistical data.

The figures refer to money transfers made by individuals (not businesses). Transfers from Russia to Georgia saw the largest decline, dropping 4.5 times to $70.5 million. Transfers to Kazakhstan also fell nearly threefold to $14.8 million. The only increase was in transfers to Kyrgyzstan, which rose by 25.4% to $244.7 million.

According to the Central Bank of Armenia, transfers to Armenia in December 2023 decreased by about 30%, totaling $297.5 million, down from $423 million in December 2022. As in the past two years, primarily individuals send money for commercial purposes, with the share of non-commercial transfers comprising less than 15% of the total volume. The volume of these non-commercial transfers fell from around $120 million to $44 million.

Conversely, the inflow of remittances from CIS countries to Russia also slowed but not significantly, by just 14%. Transfers from Georgia nearly doubled, reaching $6.7 million, while those from Kazakhstan increased by 18% to $51.4 million.

Remittances from Armenia dropped from about $61 million to $40 million, a decrease of about 34%, with more than $17 million allocated to commercial transfers and only $3.6 million to non-commercial ones (the absolute volume of non-commercial transfers decreased from $16.7 million to $13.1 million).