YEREVAN, October 31 /ARKA/. Private remittances sent to Armenia via banks for non-commercial purposes in September 2018 dropped by 5.4% from the same month a year ago to a little more than $151.6 million, the Central Bank said. It said also private remittances in September alone fell by 5.5% or by $8.7 million from the previous month.

Private remittances from Armenia to other countries grew to about $98.9 million from $89.5 million in September 2017. If compared to August 2018, they were up 2.5%. As a result, the net inflow of remittances in September 2018 decreased by 25.5% to $52.7 million from the year before. Compared to August 2018 they were down by 17.5%.

The inflow of private remittances from Russia in September 2018 when compared with September 2017 decreased by 7.9% to $94.6 million. They were also down 7.4% from August 2018. The outflow from Armenia to the Russian Federation grew by 45% to $48.7 million, a 19.9% ​​increase from the previous month.

According to the Central Bank, in 2017 a total of $1.756.4 billion were remitted to Armenia, an increase of 14.5% from the previous year, and the $1.024.9 billion were remitted form Armenia to other countries,
an increase of 25.4%. The net inflow of remittances last year thus stood at about $731.5 million, an increase of 2.2% from 2016. -0-