YEREVAN, February 14. /ARKA/. Individual money transfers to Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in 2022 amounted to $26.5bn, which is 1.9 times higher than in 2021, according to the Eurasian Development Bank's (EDB) estimates.

Money transfers to Armenia increased by 2.5 times to $5.2 billion, to Kazakhstan - 2.2 times ($1.5 billion), to Uzbekistan - 2.1 times ($16.9 billion) and to Kyrgyzstan - 6.2% ($2.9 billion).

Armenia and Uzbekistan benefited the most. Net inflows of remittances to these countries increased 2.9 and 2.3 times respectively and, as a percentage of GDP, from 6.4% to 13.2% in Armenia and from 9.3% to 18.4% in Uzbekistan.  These countries received $3.6 billion and $14.5 billion from Russia in 2022.

According to the Central Bank of Armenia, net inflow of personal remittances to Armenia in 2022 amounted to a record $2.5bn. About 70%- came from Russia.

The World Bank has ranked Armenia, along with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, among the leading countries in terms of the ratio of remittances to GDP.

According to the WB report ‘Remittances Brave Global Headwinds", the ratio in Armenia is 18.9%. According to the report, an unexpected and strong appreciation of the Russian ruble translated into higher value, in U.S. dollar terms, of outward remittances to Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus countries. -0-