After the pandemic fall into the inflow of funds from the diaspora, the monetary remittances sent by the emigration to Bosnia and Herzegovina are rising again.
According to the Central Bank of BiH and estimates for the fourth quarter 2024. years, total personal transfers – which include monetary remittances from abroad – amount to 3.98 billion KMwhile the total liquid transfers from abroad, including foreign pensions, reach 5.46 billion KMit finds out noise.
Personal transfers, ie monetary remittances from abroad, are the highest in the second and third quarter (over 1.1 billion KM), while 859 million KM was recorded in the first quarter, and in the fourth quarter, KM was expected to fall to 918 million KM. Other current transfers, in which pensions are mostly included, also have a stable growth with a total of 1.47 billion KM. Of that, 1,34 billion KM waste on social benefits including foreign pensions. In total, BiH is in 2024. received about 5.46 billion KM in the form of cash transfers from abroad.
In this table, the monetary remittances of emigration in BiH has been shown from 2014. by 2024. according to the Central Bank of BiH and the World Bank.
According to the Central Bank, remittances increased from HK 2.3 billion in 2014. at almost 4 billion KM in 2024. Years. The World Bank, which uses a wider methodology (includes employee compensation), shows significantly more values - for 2023. year as much as 5.14 billion KM, while for 2024. Evaluation is still waiting. The data show continuous and stable growth in recent years, with the exception of fall in 2020. year due to Pandemic Covid-19.
Although both lines show growth after pandemic falls 2020. year, the World Bank continuously recorded significantly more amounts. The largest jump was recorded between 2022. and 2023. years. While the Central Bank 2024. estimates record remittances of nearly 4 billion KM, for the previous year (2023) presented more than 5 billion KM for the previous year, which suggests that the final estimate for 2024 would be even higher.
These data confirm the increasing importance of financial remittances from the diaspora for the economic stability of BiH.
According to the results of the Household Consumption, 2021/2200 (results published 2024), conducted by the Agency for Statistics of BiH, received 4.6% of the population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The average number of received household remittances in the last 12 months is 5.3 and the average annual amount of received remittances in the household is 2,276.28 KM.
The most money comes from Germany, the countries of Scandinavia, North America, but also from neighboring countries. It is also important to point out methodological differences: the Central Bank of BiH records only personal transfers, while the World Bank also includes the so-called “Compensation of employees”, which includes e.g. Payers of seasonal workers from BiH abroad.
Money remittances from the diaspora remain one of the key sources of income for many households in BiH, and their importance increases in the conditions of economic uncertainty and weak domestic production. In view of the fact that more than 10% of GDP of BiH, the diaspora not only supports individual households, but directly contributes to the country’s macroeconomic stability, writes Noise.
