KULOB, February 10, 2009, Asia-Plus -- Labor migrants remitted 4,062,615 US dollars, 34.787 million Russian rubles (RR) and 7,760 euros to banks in Khatlon’s Kulob region in January 2009, Abdukarim Nematov, head of the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob, told Asia-Plus on Tuesday.

Nematov noted that predictions of some bankers and experts that the global financial crisis would result in labor migrants’ remittances from Russia decreasing had not come true.  “Just remittances in dollars decreased,” said Nematov, “In January 2008, 11,190 labor migrants remitted 6,488,903 million US dollars to Kulob banks, while in January this year, 8,245 people remitted 4,062,615 million US dollars to local banks, which is 37.39 percent fewer compared to January 2008,”

In the meantime, remittances in RR increased over the report period considerably.  “In January 2009, 3,376 migrants remitted RR34.787 million to local banks, while in January 2008, only RR8 million were remitted to Kulob banks.”

He attributed decrease in remittances in dollars and increase in remittances in Russian rubles to the fact that Tajik labor migrants had not had access to USD because Russian nationals had been actively purchasing dollars in order to avoid financial losses.