ArmInfo. In the first half of 2025, the net inflow of private transfers to Armenia decreased to 1.3% annually (compared to a decline of 33.7% the previous year), totaling $587.6 million. Specifically, the inflow increased by 9.2% to $2.8 billion, while the outflow increased by 12.4% to $2.2 billion. Additionally, there is an opposite trend in the dynamics of inflow and outflow of non- commercial transfers - the former grew by 9.8% (to $520.7 million), while the latter decreased by 5.2% (to $208 million), resulting in a 22.6% increase in net inflow to $312.7 million.
According to the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia, the largest volume of transfers comes to Armenia from Russia and the United States (a total of $2.1 billion), and flows out to the UAE and Switzerland (a total of $686.8 million). In the first half of the year, the leading inflow of transfers from Russia amounted to $1.8 billion (annual growth of 8%), the USA followed in second place - $327.6 million (annual growth of 0.7%), Great Britain came in third- $103.7 million (annual growth of 2.5 times), Switzerland was in fourth place - $66.5 million (annual growth of 44.3%) and the UAE was in fifth place - $49.9 million (annual decline of 22%). The leader in the outflow of transfers from Armenia is the UAE - $343.5 million (annual decline of 3.1%), followed by Switzerland with $343.3 million (annual growth of 2.8 times), Russia with $339.3 million (annual growth of 12%), the USA with $289.2 million (annual growth of 5.7%), and Spain with $93.3 million (annual growth of 27%). Over the year Russia's share has decreased in both the inflow from 65% to 64.3%, and in the outflow - from 15.7% to 15.6%. The UAE's share in the inflow is still negligible - it was 2.5% now 1.8%, while in the outflow it has decreased from 18.4% to 15.8%. The US share decreased both in the inflow from 12.9% to 11.9% and in the outflow from 14.2% to 13.3%. Switzerland's share in the inflow did not increase much - from 1.8% to 2.4%, but in the outflow it jumped from 6.3% to 15.8%. The UK's share increased both in the inflow - from 1.7% to 3.8%, and in the outflow - from 2.9% to 3.7%. Spain's share did not change much in the inflow - from 0.5% to 0.6%, but increased more noticeably in the outflow - from 3.8% to 4.3%.
A year ago Russia led in the inflow of transfers, while the UAE took over the lead in the outflow. The latter, according to experts, was due to "gray transactions" involving gold and diamonds, as the UAE accounted for the main re-export of precious metals and stones, the re-import of which came from Russia. Specifically, customs data show that majority of diamonds and gold imported from Russia is then exported mainly to the UAE. In 2024, the lion's share of the total import of diamonds and gold came from Russia - 73% and 99.4%, respectively, and the dominant export of these precious metals and stones came from the UAE market (74.8% diamonds and 70.2% gold). A similar trend was seen at the end of 2023, when 46.7% of diamonds and 99.2% of gold came from Russia, which were mainly exported to the UAE (84.6% diamonds and 71.4% gold). Since 2025, it has become impossible to conduct such transactions in the previous volume due to the settlement of the issue of customs duties on jewelry products within the EAEU. It is known that since 2020, the Russian Federation has more than three times submitted a proposal to the EEC to zero out the import customs value for colored precious stones and small-sized diamonds up to 0.2 carats. But the issue has not been resolved - Armenia has blocked the zeroing of duties.
Due to the import customs duty on precious stones, it was much more profitable to import finished jewelry from third countries that are not members of the EAEU than to produce it within the union. The import duty rate on finished jewelry is lower than the rates on precious stones (10-15%) for their production. However, since 2025, this "high-yield" effect has been lost. Russia has zeroed out duties on the import of jewelry from the UAE. It should be noted that in 2024, the inflow of transfers to Armenia from all countries exceeded $5.8 billion (including $1.01 billion of non-commercial nature), while the outflow was $4.3 billion (including $440 million of non-commercial nature), with the former growing by 2.5% and the latter by 7.1%. As a result, the net inflow of private transfers to Armenia in 2024 decreased by 9% - to $ 1.5 billion. Moreover, for non-commercial transfers, the decline in net inflow was more impressive, dropping by 35% to $ 573.5 million. The share of the latter in the total net inflow decreased from 53% to 38%.over the year . Russia's share in the inflow decreased from 69% to 66%r while remaining at 16% in the outflow. The UAE's share in the inflow is still minimal, increasing from 1.3% to 2%, while in the outflow it rose from 14% to 20%. The US share in the inflow remained at 12%, and in the outflow it was increased from 12% to 14%.
