In December 2018 the volume of moneyremittances transfered from abroad to Georgia accounted 150.9 million USD (402.7 million GEL), which is 9.1 percent (12.5 million USD) more than the amount in December 2017.
Remittances growth was almost fully driven by the EU (+23.7% YoY). Remittances also increased from CIS (+3.1% YoY) and from other countries (+0.3% YoY), albeit at a low rate.
From countries’ perspective main drivers of growth remained Italy (+29.9% YoY), Greece (+13.0% YoY), USA (+15.0% YoY) and Israel (+4.6% YoY). Turkey remained the major drag on the growth of remittances in December (-22.0% YoY), just like over the last 5 months. Remittances also declined from Russia (-2.7% YoY) although only moderately.
94.3 percent of the total money transfers from abroad came from 18 largest donor countries, with the volume of transfers from these countries each exceeding 1 million USD in December 2018. In December 2017 the share of these 18 countries constituted 94.2 percent of the total volume of money transfers.
