DUSHANBE, January 26, 2016, Asia-Plus  -- In 2015, volume of the dollar remittances from Russia to Tajikistan decreased by 33.3 percent, Jamshed Nourmahmadzoda, the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), told reporters in Dushanbe on January 26.

Meanwhile, remittances in Russian rubles last year increased by 3 percent, Nourmahmadzoda noted.

“Compared to 2014, physical entities last year remitted to local banks 4 billion Russian rubles more,” the NBT head said, adding that 95 percent of remittances last year came to the country from the Russian Federation.

Experts note that the economic contraction in Russia, a major remittance source country, has resulted in migrant job losses while the depreciation of the ruble has reduced the real incomes of migrant workers in Russia and reduced the value of remittances in US dollar terms.  Tajikistan is the hardest hit, due to its heavy dependency on remittances from Russia.

Tajikistan is the world’s most remittance dependent country, with remittances constituting 45 percent of GDP in 2014.