August 31, 2015. The amount of money transferred to Russia via money orders dropped by 15% in the second half of 2015 and came to $840m against $983m in the previous quarter, Banki.ru refers to the Central Bank as stating.

The decrease was primarily brought about by the shrinking amount of money coming from the CIS member states ($597m against $756m in the first quarter of the year). On the other hand, as much as $243m came from the far abroad, compared with $228m in January-March.

These figures were larger last year, including the overall amount of money transferred to the country from abroad ($964m in the second quarter and $308m in June 2014).

The negative balance of international money orders via banks and post offices came to $660m in June against $618m in May 2015 and to $1.87bn in June 2014. The negative balance for the second quarter of 2015 was -$1.948bn against -$1.146bn in the previous quarter and -$4.76bn in the second quarter of 2014.

Additionally, 8% more money was sent abroad by Russian citizens in June 2015 compared with May 2015 ($929m against $859m). $766m and $163m were transferred to the CIS and the countries of the far abroad, respectively.