Friday, September 7 2012 11:27
Non-commercial personal remittances to Armenia up 8.2% over the year amid 9.2% growth of remittances from Armenia
ArmInfo. Non-commercial personal remittances to Armenia through the banking system of Armenia were up 8.2% in the first half of 2012 versus the same period of 2011 and totaled $664.5 million. Remittances from Armenia grew 9.2% to $131.9 mln for the period under review. Actally, net inflow totaled $532.6 mln with an 8% growth versus the first half of 2011. Russia's share in total personal remittances was still the biggest - 83%. Then go USA (5.3%), Ukraine (1.3%), Kazakhstan (1.2%), France and Germany (by 0.8%).
By data of the Central Bank, remittances from Russia grew 11.5% to $551.9 mln and personal remittances from the USA grew 7.5% to $35.3 mln. Remittances from France also grew by 0,6% to $5.2 mln. Remittances from Karabakhstan fell 6.4% to $8.8 mln, from Ukraine - 33.4% to $8 million and from Germany - 8.3% to $5 million.
Over 56.6% of the personal remittances from the country or $74.6 million was the share of Russia, with a 16.2% growth versus the first half of 2011. The USA's share in total remittances from Armenia was nearly 9.2% or $12.2 million with a 2.6% decline. Remittances from Armenia to Ukraine fell 13% to 7 million, to UAE - 0.6% to $3.3 million, amid doubling of remittances to China (to $5 million). Remittances to Germany grew 1.3fold to $4 million.
As a result, the share of Russia in the net inflow of private remittances was 89.6% or $447.3 million with a 10.8% growth versus the first half of 2011. The share of the USA in total was 4.4% or $23 million with a 13.8% growth. The share of transfers from France in the net inflow grew 3.2fold to 2.8 million amid 5% decline of Kazakhstan's share to $8 million.
In the first half of 2012 negative net inflow of private remittances from China totaled $2.5 million (outflow - $5 million, inflow - $2.5 million), with a 6.7% decline of the negative indicator versus the first half of 2011. Negative private remittances to Turkey totaled 1.068 million (outflow - 1.887 million and inflow - $819 thousand).
In Jan-Dec 2011 private remittances to Armenia totaled $1.6 billion with a 19.6% growth versus the same period of 2010. Private remittances from Armenia (outflow) grew 13.3% to $264.6 million. Net inflow of private remittances totaled $1.3 billion with a 19.6% growth.
The Central Bank of Armenia lowered the forecast of the growth rates of private money transfers. The CB forecasted 9%-12% growth of non-commercial private remittances in 2012 due to the new forecast of economic growth in Russia in 2012. In particular, IMF forecasted 3.3% economic growth in Russia in 2012. Earlier, the monetary policy of the Armenian Central Bank for Q4 2011 forecasted 11%-13% growth of the net inflow of non-commercial private transfer to Armenia.
The Armenian banking sector encompasses 21 commercial banks. Money remittances to Armenia were made via 17 international payment systems: UniStream, Anelik, Contact, Zolotaya Korona, Bistraya Pochta, Leader, Interexpess, Blizko, Private Money and other. Anelik is the own system of Anelik Bank whereas UNIstream operates in Armenia via its exclusive partner Unibank. The CB recognized the license of Migom money transfer system invalid in the territory of Armenia on August 6 2012.
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