Half a Billion Euros Less Arrives to Serbia from the Diaspora

The inflow of money to Serbia through wire transfers from abroad, in the period between January and August 2020, is nearly half a billion euros lower than in the same period last year, Vecernje Novosti reports.

According to the latest payment balance data of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), the total wire transfer inflow in the seven months amounted to EUR 1.912 billion – EUR 446.8 million less than in 2019. The NBS told Novosti that the lower amount was a consequence of the pandemic affecting the economies where the Serbian working diaspora is the most numerous.

– The drop of the GDP in the countries which the wire transfers come from lowers the amount of money people can set aside and send to their native countries – the NBS says.

The personal transfers that are monitored include workers' wire transfers, pensions and welfare, as well as aid and gifts from abroad, sent to natural persons.

In the first half of the year, most wire transfers came from Germany – EUR 377 million, followed by Switzerland – EUR 169 million, Austria – EUR 109 million and the USA – EUR 95 million.

Between January and August, the outflow of money from Serbia amounted to EUR 161.6 million, which is EUR 11.7 million, or 7.8%, more than in the same period in 2019.

Observed by country, most wire transfers in the first half of 2020 were sent to Germany – EUR 12.5 million, China – EUR 9.5 million, USA – EUR 9.4 million, Canada – EUR 5.1 million, Switzerland – EUR 5 million and Montenegro – EUR 4.9 million, Novosti writes.

Narodna banka Srbije Beograd

NBS

money inflow

wire transfers

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