EVERY EIGHT THERE ARE “SPONSORS” IN THE DIASPORA: According to the National Bank, about 2.28 billion euros of remittances arrived from abroad in eight months

The amount of money that the people of Serbia receive from abroad from family, friends or in other ways, has not yet reached the level before the crown. As they say in the National Bank of Serbia, for the first eight months of this year, the inflow of remittances amounted to around 2.28 billion euros. That is an increase of 19.2 percent compared to the same period last year, but it is 3.4 percent less than in 2019.

Since a year and a half ago, there is a Unified Register of NBS remittance users. It has 1,008,622 users. A total of 307,489 of our citizens sent money, while 835,927 citizens of Serbia received money from abroad. Of these, 134,794 registered both sent and received funds. Considering that according to statistical data, there are about 6.9 million inhabitants in Serbia, it turns out that every eighth inhabitant has “sponsors” from abroad.

– In the register, with strict care for the protection of personal data, data are kept only on the users of remittances made through global services for fast money transfer – they say in the NBS. – There is no data on personal transfers through bank accounts.

The NBS also says that as far as remittances are concerned, the impact of the pandemic was twofold. First of all, it is the fall in GDP in the countries from which money is sent, and it was additionally affected by restrictive epidemic measures that made it difficult to bring in money.

MOST FROM GERMANY

The GEOGRAPHICAL structure of remittances remained stable both during the pandemic 2020 and in 2021 – they explain in the NBS. – Since the beginning of this year, the largest inflow of remittances has been registered from Germany – 28 percent, Switzerland – 12 percent, the United States and Austria eight percent each, and France – six percent.