DUSHANBE, April 4, 2014, Asia-Plus -- The Central Bank of Russia reports that 4.1543 billion U.S. dollars (USD) was sent through money transfer system from Russia to Tajikistan in 2013, which was 520.1 million USD more than in 2012.

Russia’s central bank notes that 679.7 million USD was sent during the first quarter, 998 million USD was sent during the second quarter, 1.3666 billion USD was sent during the third quarter and 1.11 billion SUD was sent during the fourth quarter.

During the fourth quarter, the average sum of the remittances from the Russian Federation to Tajikistan was reportedly 351.00 U.S. dollars.

In 2013, Tajikistan took the second place among the CIS nations in terms of money transfer, and Uzbekistan was in the lead in this area as 6.6326 billion U.S. dollars was sent there from Russia last year.

Meanwhile, 537.2 million U.S. dollars was sent from Tajikistan to Russia last year.  During the fourth quarter, the average sum of the remittances from Tajikistan to Russia was reportedly 3,640 U.S. dollars.

Labor migrants still remain a critical component in the economy of Tajikistan.  Tajik government, however, stopped publishing information on the volume of remittances sent to Tajikistan in May last year.  In a report released in Dushanbe, the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) head Abdujabbor Shirinov revealed on July 23, 2013 that Tajikistan will no longer release cash transfer data.  According to him, the government stopped publishing information on the volume of remittances sent to Tajikistan in May.  “I''d rather not talk about migrants'' funds because this issue may be politicized,” Abdujabbor Shirinov said.