TIRANA, May 24 /ATA/ Remittance flows through digital channels increased during 2020, according to a World Bank report.
Albania ranks among the ten top remittance recipients in Europe and Central Asia.
“Regarding the digitalisation of the sector, the report shows that many major money transfer operators reported double-digit growth in their digital services, in stark contrast to the decline in their remittance services. The transition from cash to digital channels has continued throughout 2020. Recent data showed that cross-border remittances rose by 65% in 2020 (from $ 7.7 billion in 2019 to $ 12 billion in 2020), reaching over 1 billion dollars in transactions sent and received each month (Andersson and Naghavi 2021, GSMA). It is believed that there has been a wide shift in flows from informal to official channels in 2020,” the report recently published by the World Bank is quoted as saying.
Over the last two years, remittances have accounted for 12% of Albania’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Meanwhile, according to the Survey on Finance and Consumption of Albanian Households, recently conducted by the Bank of Albania, it is estimated that during 2018, 23% of Albanian households have received income in the form of remittances.
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