site.btaRemittances from Bulgarians Abroad to Relatives at Home Drop Eightfold in Two Years

Remittances from Bulgarians abroad to people (mainly relatives) in Bulgaria decreased eightfold in 2021 compared with the last pre-pandemic year of 2019. Bulgarian National Bank data show that expatriate Bulgarians supported close ones in their home country with EUR 160.7 million in 2021 against EUR 1.219 billion in 2019. In 2020, the amount was EUR 358 million.

In the first quarter of 2022, expatriates' money remitted to Bulgaria amounted to BGN 77 million (EUR 39.4 million), which was less than in the first three months of 2020 and 2019, BG Voice says.

Economists explain that the COVID pandemic triggered a series of crises which have reduced the remittance potential since 2019. Low-skilled workers and restaurant and hotel employees were the first to lose their jobs due to the COVID outbreak.

The World Bank predicts that remittances to low- and medium-income nations will grow by 4.2% to USD 630 billion in 2022 after an impressive 8.6% rise in 2021.

Bulgarian immigrants in the United States remitted BGN 58.2 million (USD 34.2 million) to Bulgaria in 2020, and only BGN 30.3 million (USD 17.8 million) in 2021.

As usual, the largest amounts of remittances to Bulgaria have been coming from Bulgarians in Germany, the United States, Spain, Greece, Italy, Britain, Belgium and France.

Not all the money remitted from abroad can be detected statistically.