YEREVAN, November 11, /ARKA/. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Representative to Armenia, Nienke Omes, said Tuesday the volume of individual remittances to Armenia from Russia and other countries this year will drop by 30%.

Addressing the students and faculty of Yerevan State University with a lecture on the Prospects for Development of Economy in the Caucasus and Central Asia, she said the decline in the volume of remittances to Armenia’s neighbors in the Caucasus and some other former Soviet republics will be as much.

She said sharp decline in remittances is affecting the population’s incomes; as a result per capita incomes in Armenia, Georgia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan which all import energy resources, have fallen.

She said the majority of labor migrants from these countries worked in Russia which was hit severely by the global economic and financial crisis, entailing reduction of jobs and as a consequence, remittances.

According to the official figures of the Central Bank of Armenia, the volume of individual remittances to Armenia in January-September, 2009 via the banks slashed by 35% ($353 million) from a year before to $672.3 million.

The volume of individual remittances to Armenia in August 2009 totaled $110.8 million.

The net volume of remittances fell by 36.8% if compared to the first nine months of 2008 to $557.6 million, down from $882.7 million in Jan.-Sept., 2008
The biggest net inflow of individual remittances in Jan.-Sept. 2009 was from Russia totaling $475.9 million or 85.4% of all net individual money transfers. -0-