Croats living abroad send a lot of money each year back to Croatia.
In 2015, Croatia was in the group of member states of the European Union with a large surplus in foreign remittances, which reached 741 million euros, while the EU as a whole recorded a deficit in personal transfers of citizens in the amount of 20.4 billion euros, according to an analysis by Eurostat, reports seebiz.eu on December 10, 2016.
Remittances totalling 31.3 billion euros were sent from the European Union in 2015, compared to 29.9 billion euros in 2014. At the same time, the EU received foreign remittances amounting to slightly less than 11 billion euros, which means that the EU had a deficit of 20.4 billion euros in terms of remittances with the rest of the world. The majority of transfers are remittances sent by migrants to their home countries, the report noted.
In 2015, Croatia received 959 million euros of foreign remittances, while remittances worth 218 million euros were sent from Croatia to other countries. Therefore, Croatia recorded a surplus of 741 million euros. Of remittances received in Croatia, 512 million euros came from other EU member states, while the remaining 446 million euros came from countries outside of the European Union. Of the total remittances sent from Croatia, other EU member states received 97 million euros, while 121 million euros went to countries outside the EU.
By the amount of surplus in remittances, Croatia found itself next to Lithuania, which recorded a surplus of 692 million euros. The smallest surplus in remittances was recorded by Slovenia, just 2 million euros.
Among other EU member states, the largest outflow of remittances was recorded by France, amounting to almost 10 billion euros. France is followed by the United Kingdom, with outflow of 7.7 billion euros, Italy with 6.4 billion euros and Spain with 6.2 billion euros.
In contrast, the largest inflow of remittances was registered in Portugal, in the amount of 3.3 billion euros. It is followed by Poland, with 3.2 billion euros, the United Kingdom with 2.7 billion euros, and Romania and Italy with 2.2 billion euros.
Therefore, the largest surplus in remittances in 2015 was recorded in Poland, with almost 3 billion euros, followed by Portugal and Romania.
