Remittances yield US$ 3bn

Remittances have contributed to Serbia’s economy with around US$ 3bn, National Bank Governor Radovan Jelašić said Tuesday.

Izvor: BIRN

Wednesday, 06.06.2007.

14:01

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Remittances yield US$ 3bn

According to official estimates, more than 1 million people from Serbia are currently working abroad, mainly in European Union countries.

The World Bank official data indicate that remittances worldwide exceeded US$ 230bn in 2005.

Jelašić said that development of an effective infrastructure involving banks and state bodies would "significantly decrease money transfer fees."

"Transfer costs for EUR 1,000 are equal to a low-cost air ticket to Belgrade," he said.

At the conference, Jörg Al. Reding, the director of Switzerland’s department for Economic Cooperation and Development (SECO), said that Serbs working in his country are annually sending home around US$ 40mn.

Reding also stated that most of the Serbia-destined remittances from Switzerland are either spent or used to invest in real estate.

Serbia is still struggling to overhaul its economy, which was badly damaged by the Balkan wars in the 1990s, international isolation, and more than a decade of mismanagement and ruinous rule by the former President Slobodan Milošević.

Since Milošević’s ousting in 2000, new Serbian authorities have managed to boost growth, repay some loans to international creditors and curb the extreme inflation of 1993 and 1994 to a single digit figure.

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