Belarusians Received More Than A Billion Dollars From Abroad Last Year
- 24.09.2026, 18:39
That's a record.
According to the National Bank, in 2025, Belarusian residents received $1.052 billion from abroad in the form of earned income and personal remittances. This is the highest figure in the country’s history, reports Thinktanks.pro.
Economists Elena Maslenkova and Kristina Matievskaya analyzed the trends in these inflows over the recent period in an article for the journal *Banking Herald*. They noted a steady long-term increase in the amount of money Belarusians have been receiving from abroad since 2008.
Between 2005 and 2025, remittances from overseas employment increased 11.8-fold. Growth was particularly pronounced in 2020–2025: during this period, the amount rose from $311 million to $1.052 billion. The increase over these five years, in absolute terms, was greater than the total increase over the previous 15 years.
The researchers believe that this trend indirectly indicates an increase in labor migration and the growing importance of remittances for the Belarusian economy.
The share of net labor income received from abroad relative to GDP rose from 0.3% in 2005 to 1.12% in 2025. Thus, these earnings have already reached a level that can be quantitatively taken into account when assessing macroeconomic processes in the household sector.
At the same time, the labor income that foreign workers remitted out of Belarus also grew, though its volume remained significantly lower than the inflows into the country. The net labor remittance balance increased from $89 million in 2005 to $805 million in 2025.
The structure of cash flows has also changed over the past two decades. Until 2015, personal remittances accounted for the bulk of the flow—including transfers from people who had worked abroad long-term and from non-residents. Since 2016, the primary source of inflows has been net labor earnings from seasonal and temporary workers who are residents of Belarus.
At the same time, the amount of money that Belarusians send abroad is growing at a significantly slower rate. Their share of total inflows has declined from approximately 30–35% in the mid-2000s to 15–20% in the 2020s.
The authors of the study note that changes in the structure of personal remittances may indirectly indicate a rise in short-term labor migration and an increase in the share of Belarusians who are officially employed abroad.