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Flows of money sent to non-EU countries amounted to €202 million

12/11/2019 15:56

In 2018, flows of money sent by residents of the European Union (EU) to non-EU countries, referred to as personal transfers, amounted to €35.6 billion, compared with €32.6 bn in 2017. Inflows to the EU totalled €10.9 bn in 2018, unchanged compared with 2017. This resulted in a negative balance (-€24.6 bn) for the EU with the rest of the world. The majority of personal transfers consist of flows of money sent by migrants to their country of origin. This News Release, issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, presents annual data on personal transfers collected within the framework of Balance of Payments statistics.

More specifically Personal transfers, in 2018 (in € million) in Greece amounted to 195 million euro of inflows (124 million intra EU and 71 million extra EU) and 578 million in outflows (183 million intra EU and 395 million extra EU). In Cyprus there were 233 million on inflows (135 million intra EU and 98 million extra EU) and 465 million outflows (263 million intra EU and 202 million extra EU).

Among Member States for which data are published, the outflows of personal transfers in 2018 were highest from France (€11.4 bn), followed by Spain (€7.7 bn), the United Kingdom (€7.0 bn), Italy (€6.5 bn) and Germany (€5.2 bn). In contrast, the highest inflows were recorded in Portugal (€3.6 bn), ahead of Romania (€3.0 bn), Poland (€2.9 bn), the United Kingdom (€2.3 bn) and Italy (€2.0 bn). As a result, the largest surpluses in personal transfers were registered in 2018 in Portugal (+€3.1 bn), Romania (+€2.7 bn) and Poland (+€2.5 bn), while France (-€10.5 bn) recorded by far the largest deficit, followed by Germany (-€5.1 bn), the United Kingdom (-€4.7 bn) and Italy (-€4.5 bn).

In 2018, the highest shares of intra-EU inflows among total inflows of personal transfers were recorded in Slovakia (99%), Hungary (90%), Luxembourg and Romania (both 89%), Poland (85%) and Sweden (83%). On the contrary, extra-EU inflows accounted for about three-quarters of total inflows in France (74%) and for about two-thirds in Malta (63%) and Belgium (61%). Slovakia (97%), Luxembourg (88%), Ireland (79%) and Finland (70%) were the Member States that recorded the highest proportion of intra-EU outflows in total outflows. For extra-EU outflows, the largest shares were observed in Slovenia (88%), Belgium (85%), Italy and Poland (both 83%), the Netherlands and Portugal (both 82%), and France (78%). Extra-EU personal transfers were mostly directed to Asia (21% of total extra-EU outflows), followed by North Africa (18%), non-EU European countries (16%), Central and South Africa (14%) and South America (13%).