Strawberry pickers support Balkan economies

The money earned by the citizens of the Balkans region working abroad has a substantial contribution to the economic growth of their home countries, Bloomberg writes quoting a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development report. Workers abroad sent home 20 billion dollars in 2005, according to the report.

The money sent home from Moldavians working abroad accounts for 30% of the GDP. A similar situation can be found in Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Tajikistan, where the money earned abroad accounts for 10 % of their GDPs. In these countries, the foreign currency flow exceeds the amounts of foreign direct investment.

In the new EU member states, only 2%of the GDP is coming from the workers abroad.