The volume of remittances transferred to Moldova from abroad through banks last year totaled US$1.612 million, as against US$1.606 million in 2013. 88.5% of the cash transfers were made through transfer systems without opening bank accounts, IPN reports, quoting a communique of the National Bank of Moldova.

Over 63% of the money transfers were made from the CIS, while 20.2% from the EU. Russia accounted for 61.6% of all the transfers. In January – July last year, this figure rose from 52% to 68.8% and then decreased to 50.4% in December.

The annual currency structure of the transfers by transfer systems was characterized by the diminution of the share of remittances in US dollars and the rise in the share of remittances in Russian rubles. Thus, the share of transfers in US dollars fell by 4.1% to 27.2%, while of transfers in Russian rubles rose by 3.1% to 36.7%. 

Last year the Russian ruble depreciated against the Moldovan leu by 30.7%. On January 2, 2014, a transfer of 20,000 Russian rubles represented 7,938 lei, while on December 31, 2014, the same sum was equal to 5,526 Moldovan lei.