February witnessed a surge in remittances from Bulgarians residing abroad, reaching a remarkable EUR 110.5 million, marking the highest value since last July.

The upward trajectory continued from the previous month, where emigrants sent home EUR 102.1 million, culminating in a total of EUR 212.6 million for the first two months of 2024. This figure reflects a slight increase of over EUR 10 million compared to the corresponding period in the previous year.

Last year saw record-breaking monthly remittances to Bulgaria, with May witnessing emigrants transferring EUR 172.2 million. Additionally, April and June recorded remittance amounts exceeding EUR 150 million each, with figures standing at 151.5 million and 151.9 million euros respectively.

The cumulative effect of these individual monthly highs resulted in a record EUR 1.431 billion being transferred to Bulgaria in 2023, marking a substantial increase from the EUR 1.199 billion recorded a year earlier.

Significantly, for the seventh consecutive year, emigrants have sent more than EUR 1 billion to their homeland, with officially recorded sums surpassing EUR 11 billion over the past decade.

Germany and the USA emerge as the primary sources of remittances, contributing EUR 291.9 million and EUR 266.3 million respectively. Notably, only two other countries, Spain (EUR 144 million) and Great Britain (EUR 139 million), have surpassed the EUR 100 million mark in remittances.

The list of top remittance-contributing countries includes Greece (EUR 90 million), Italy (EUR 67.7 million), Belgium (EUR 59.2 million), and the Netherlands (EUR 58 million). France and Austria complete the top ten, with remittances of EUR 44 million and EUR 43 million respectively.