MOSCOW, January 25 (RIA Novosti) – Tajik migrants working in Russia sent $3.8 billion in remittances back home in 2012, up 31 percent year-on-year and equal to 47 percent of the country’s GDP, Tajikistan’s Finance Ministry said on Friday.
Tajikistan's Finance Minister Safarali Najmiddinov said remittances sent to Tajikistan by migrant workers are projected to increase further still amid a positive economic outlook for Russia.
“We are concerned that the negative factors of the financial and economic crisis will affect the economy of the countries we cooperate with. However, GDP growth in the countries where our migrants work is 3.4 percent. This factor will allow our migrant workers to increase the cashflow to the country,” Najmiddinov said.
According to Tajikistan’s National Bank, remittances to Tajikistan from workers abroad amounted to $2.9 billion in 2011, a 33 percent increase year-on-year, Tajikistan’s Howar news Agency reported.
According to its Migration Service, 800,000 citizens from Tajikistan, the poorest of the former Soviet republics, are currently working in Russia. More than half of Tajikistan's families live on migrants’ remittances.
In mid-2011, the average monthly salary in Tajikistan topped $100 for the first time in the country’s modern history.
