Money transfers from abroad to Georgia in the first nine months of 2015 declined by more than 26.7% year-on-year to USD 802.9 million, according to figures released by the National Bank of Georgia on October 15.

There was 32.9% y/y decline in remittances in September after 35.1% and 31.8% drop in August and July, respectively.

Money transfers from Russia, the largest source of remittances for Georgia, were down by 41.7% y/y in January-September 2015 to USD 322.7 million.

Remittances from Greece, which for years was Georgia’s second largest source of remittances up until July 2015, declined by 41.4% y/y to USD 91.39 million in the first nine months of this year.

Money transfers from Italy in January-September 2015 stood at USD 79.9 million (down by 12.9% y/y), followed by the United States – USD 72.9 million; Turkey – USD 53.4 million; Israel – USD 22.9 million; Spain – USD 19.6 million; Germany – USD 19 million.

Remittances were down by 2.45% y/y in 2014 to USD 1.44 billion, accounting for about 8.7% of country’s GDP.