July 2020: money transfers to Georgia up 22.1%

The volume of money transfers to Georgia in July 2020 was $188.7 million, which is a 22.1 per cent increase compared to July 2019, says the National Bank of Georgia (NBG).

More than one-third of money transfers came in from the European Union: 

• EU countries - $73.79 million (39.1%)
• Other countries - $114.93 million (60.9%)

The largest countries from which money transfers entered Georgia were the following:

• Russia – $40.4 million
• Italy – $28.04 million
• USA – $22.43 million
• Greece – $20.22 million
• Israel – $14.08

The vast majority (94.6%) of all money transfers from abroad came from 18 countries, with the volume of transfers from these countries each exceeding $1 million last month.

$22.2 million was transferred from Georgia to foreign countries in July 2020, which is a 15.6 per cent increase year-on-year.

Money transfers have increased but the increase is not as rapid as it might seem from the statistics,” sad Governor of the National Bank of Georgia Koba Gvenetadze.

He noted that before the pandemic, the share of money transfers (about 8 per cent) entered Georgia through non-banking channels, such as visitors.

Due to the limitation of international travel, this part of remittances has moved to the banking channels and, as a result, has also contributed to this increase in remittances,” said Gvenetadze.

He also said that the accumulated sums people could not send during the pandemic were sent in June-July and as a result increased the amount of remittances sharply.