A new survey completed by the IOM and ILO in March 2009 shows that
20 per cent of Moldovans who received remittances in 2008 no longer
do so as a direct result of the current economic crisis affecting
Moldovans abroad.

According to the nationwide survey, 68 per cent of the 2,000
respondent households said they received less money now. On
average, Moldovans received 27 per cent less money in remittances
than they did in 2008.

"We are carefully monitoring the effects on households from
reduced incomes, and we are planning measures to soften the
negative consequences with our partners," says Martin Wyss, IOM's
Chief of Mission in Moldova.

Contrary to expectations, however, the economic crisis has not
triggered a mass return of Moldovans from abroad. Although
Moldova's National Bureau of Statistics reports that the number of
Moldovans working abroad dropped from 340,000 in the last quarter
of 2008 to 272,500 in the first quarter of 2009, many of those who
have returned home plan to migrate again within the next six
months.

According to the World Bank, Moldova is among the countries with
the highest volume of remittances when measured against the GDP.
The USD 1.6 billion Moldovan migrants remitted in 2008, mostly from
Russia and Italy, amount to more than 30 per cent when compared to
the country's GDP. A recent IOM research confirmed that over 35 per
cent of the Moldovan population lives in households that receive
remittances. Remittances are mainly used to pay for basic household
consumption, consumer durables, education, housing and the
repayment of debts.

The study was supported by the European Commission through a
joint IOM/ILO project "Beyond Poverty Alleviation: Developing a
Legal, Regulatory and Institutional Framework for Leveraging
Migrant Remittances for Entrepreneurial Growth in Moldova". The
main objective of the project is the efficient leveraging of
migration and remittance based gains. The effort is part of the
Government's strategy to create effective mechanisms for regulating
migration and developing incentives for attracting remittances
towards investments in Moldova.

The study is available online at "paragraph-link-no-underline" href="http://www.iom.md" target=
"_blank" title="">www.iom.md.

For more information, please contact:

Tatiana Jardan

IOM Moldova

Tel: 23 29 40 (ext. 119)

E-mail: "mailto:tjardan@iom.int">tjardan@iom.int