Incomes from exiles increase, 253 million per four months

The financing of Kosovo citizens from fellow countrymen living in exile and otherwise known as remittances, over the first four months of this year, has increased for more than 18m euros, compared to the same period last year.

Thus has the spokesperson for the Kosovo Central Bank, Kuqim Ahmeti, who said that by now the CEC has released the report for only four months, but added that the trend of growing remittances is continuing.

The amount of remittances sent for the January-April period of this year reached 253.5m euros, if we make comparison with the same period last year, then the value is 18.7m euros more” -- has stressed the Ahmeti Framework for Radio Kosovo.

But if these vehicles have a specific destination or are used for specific projects, Ahmeti said all means go for consumption.

“Velrates sent to remittances are small values, but in total big values are made and mainly go for consumption, student funding for studies and other stuff”, he added.

However, the trend of increased remittances in Kosovo has begun decades earlier, and not only in recent years.

If we're based on the latest data, but even general data, we have a constant increase in remittances that our exiles have sent to their families in Kosovo. There has been no decline, we have at times had some stability, but mostly we have temporary growth, as long as we see only the first four months of this year and the 4 months of last year where we have 18.7m euros more, and this shows that there is continuing to be increased remittances from our exiles to their families living in Kosovo”, Ahmeti underlined.

Otherwise, according to some data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency, it is estimated there are over 700 thousand Kosovars living in different parts of the world. The largest number live in the state of Germany, followed by Switzerland and the United States of America.