YEREVAN, June 1, / ARKA /. Individual money transfers sent to Armenia largely by labour migrants from Russia and some other countries via banks and other organizations handling money transfer operations grew by 18% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2011 to 121 billion drams, the Central Bank of Armenia said.

It also said money transfers from Armenia to other countries in the same time span rose by 9.4% to 58 billion drams. As a result the net inflow of money transfers dropped to 63 billion drams, a 14 billion drams rise if compared to the first three months of 2010.

According to the Central Bank, 82 billion drams (402,878 transactions) were remitted via Armenian commercial banks handling international remittances, by 13 billion drams more than in the first quarter of 2010 and by 6.6 times more than they remitted to other countries form Armenia.

An average money transfer to Armenian through international systems was 203,000 drams, by 12,000 drams less than an average transfer in the first quarter of 2010. Overall, the volume of individual money transfers made via correspondent bank accounts grew by 17% year-on-year or 5.6 billion drams to 38 billion drams. The volume of individual money transfers to other countries via correspondent bank accounts grew by 9% or 3.7 billion drams to 45 billion drams.

The combined amount of money transfers to Armenia via correspondents bank accounts (

SWIFT, Telex, fax, and bank-client systems) amounted to 626 billion drams (29,794 transactions). An average transfer was 21 million drams, by 8% more from a year before. ($1 – 376,78 drams). -0-