May 22, 2018 - The total inflow of remittances from abroad in 2017 was 421.2 million, out of which 73.2 million euro as outflow. From the total inflow, about EUR 259.1 million relates to the compensation of employees (outflow 25.3 million), i.e., Montenegro residents who work abroad.
Personal transfers totaled to EUR 125 million (outflow 37.8 million), while other transfers, including pensions, disability benefits, and other social benefits, accounted to EUR 37.1 million out of which EUR 10.2 million was in outflos.
In line with the new methodology of the International Monetary Fund, which CBCG has applied since 2014, personal transfers of the category which represents a broader concept than that of workers' remittances were used so far. In addition to employee remittances, which only include migrant transfers employed in foreign economies, personal transfers also include all other transfers between citizens. Montenegrin emigrants and their descendants are settled mostly in North America, Latin America, Serbia, Turkey, Western Europe and the former Yugoslavia, but a significant number of them also live in Australia, Russia, and some African countries.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Srdjan Darmanovic, said earlier that the Montenegrin Diaspora, according to estimates, sends about 500 million euro annually to Montenegrin citizens, while official figures are slightly lower. He said that this is only about the money that comes from banking transactions and that it is estimated that that amount of money is sent from the diaspora to their families by private channels without any records.
Text by Biljana Matijasevic, on May 22nd, 2018, read more at Vijesti
