In 2022, personal financial transfers sent by residents of the European Union to countries outside the EU amounted to 43.5 billion euros, which is 14 percent higher compared to the previous year.
On the other hand, remittances received from countries outside the EU amounted to 13.5 billion euros, representing a 10 percent increase.
Personal transfers mainly consist of the flow of money that immigrants send to households in their country of origin.
In the last five years at the EU level, there has been a significant increase in transfers to countries outside the Union. Since 2018, outflows have increased by 41 percent, while inflows have shown a much more modest growth of only 15 percent. As a result, there has been a noticeable increase in the transfer deficit at the EU level, reaching almost 30 billion euros last year.
In the past year, personal transfers resulted in a surplus for nine EU countries because their inflows exceeded outflows. Among these countries, four reported a surplus representing more than one percent of their gross domestic product.
At the top of this list is Croatia with a surplus of 1.9 billion euros or 2.8 percent of GDP. This means that Croatian emigrants from countries outside the European Union sent significantly more money to Croatia than foreign workers on temporary employment in Croatia sent back to their countries.
Following Croatia on the surplus list are Bulgaria (1.4 percent), Portugal (1.4 percent), and Romania (1.3 percent).