Serbia receives EUR 1.1 billion from diaspora in first five months 2016

In the first five months of 2016, Serbia received EUR 1.1 billion from the diaspora, whereas the amount in the corresponding period in 2015 was higher by EUR 100 million, Vecernje Novosti reports. Most of it came to Serbia from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France, i.e. countries with large populations of Serbs.

The average payment inflow in the past five years has been around EUR 2.7 billion, i.e. around 8.2% of GDP.

As the newspaper reports, according to the data by the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), Serbs living abroad sent EUR 2.86 billion to their relatives in Serbia in 2015, which is 9.7% more than in 2014.

Serbs working in Turkey have sent USD 300 million on average in the past two years, more than their compatriots temporarily employed in France and Italy, Vecernje Novosti writes and adds that 23% of residents of Serbia have at least one relative who works abroad, whereas 11% have intermittent or regular income from relatives living abroad.

The newspaper also writes that the data by the World Bank show that, in the 2000s, as much as USD 43 billion was sent to Serbia by the diaspora and that the transfers amounted to 13.7% of GDP on average, which is 2.5 times more than the amount of foreign direct investments in the period from 2000 till 2010.

Narodna banka Srbije Beograd

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relatives living abroad

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