Money transferred from abroad to Georgia in the first five months of 2012 reached USD 518.16 million, a 9% increase over the same period of last year, according to figures released by the Georgian central bank last week.

In May figure stood at USD 116.67 million, a 6.5% y/y and a 3.5% m/m increase.

Russia remains largest source of remittances for Georgia with more than half of all the money transfered into Georgia in January-May, 2012 coming from this country – USD 268.86 million.

Other large sources of remittances for Georgia are Greece – USD 62.6 million in the same period, followed by Italy – USD 44.8 million; the U.S. – USD 32.1 million; Ukraine – USD 18.45 million; Spain – USD 12.37 million; Turkey – USD 11.56 million; India – USD 6.9 million; the UK – USD 6.58 million; Israel – USD 5.8 million; Germany – USD 5.2 million.

Money transferred from abroad to Georgia last year amounted to a record high of USD 1.26 billion, up 20.5% from 2010.