Russia, Greece, Italy top spenders in Georgia, says Geostat

In February 2015 more than $82 million USD was transferred from abroad, says the National Bank of Georgia (NBG).

Last month the total volume of money transfers from abroad constituted $82.2 million USD (171.1 million GEL). This was $22.7 million (47.4 million GEL), or 21.7 percent less than the amount in February 2014, said the bank.

Most of the total money transfers from abroad (91 percent) came from 12 big donor countries, with the volume of transfers from of these countries each exceeding $1 million.

With $28.2 million, the Russian Federation topped the list of countries where the largest share of remittances were sent to Georgia, followed by Greece with $13.7 million and Italy with $9 million.

These figures were similar to the previous year where in February 2014, the share of these 12 countries constituted 92.9 percent of the total volume of money transfers.

Meanwhile last month $14.6 million (30.5 million GEL) was transferred from Georgia, as compared to $12.6 million (or 22.1 million GEL) in February 2014.

As for January 2015, the volume of money transfers from abroad reached $75.5 million (146.5 million GEL), but this was almost 25 percent lower than the same time in 2014, said NBG.

The first month of 2015 experienced a 23.3 percent drop in international money transfers, which amounted to $23 million (44.6 million GEL).

The bank said 87 percent of the total money transferred during January came from nine big donor countries where the volume of transfers from these countries exceeded $1.5 million (just over 3 million GEL).

Meanwhile in January 2015, $12.5 million (24.3 million GEL) was transferred from Georgia, which was roughly the same amount transferred in January 2014.