Remittances - money sent by Bulgarian migrants to family members back home – have reached BGN 12.2B in the past 10 years.

For the period 2004-2013, the remittances sent back home by Bulgarian emigrants amount to EUR 6.239B, according to Standart news report based on Bulgarian National Bank data. For comparison, the highest foreign direct investment in the country for the same period came from the Netherlands and totaled EUR 7.683B.

Austria is the third top investor in Bulgaria with EUR 5.435B, followed by Greece with EUR 2.7B, the UK – EUR 2.058B, Cyprus – EUR 2.001B, Germany – EUR 1.898B, Russia – EUR 1.818B.

Since the beginning of 2014, emigrants have been the main source of foreign capital, Standart news informs. According to the preliminary data, Bulgarians abroad have sent their relatives in Bulgaria a total of EUR 209.2M in Q1 2014. For comparison, the foreign direct investment for the same period amounted to EUR 88.9M.

The official statistics, however, do not take into account the real economic contribution of the 2 million Bulgarians living abroad, as only bank transfers for over EUR 2,500 have been recorded. In other words, the statistics do not cover remittances under EUR 2,500 or net cash.