Out of all EU member states, Croatia is the most dependent on the personal transfers of its citizens who live and work or just work abroad, and these transfers exceed 7 percent of the Croatian GDP, Jutarnji List daily reported on Monday.

In 2021, Croatian emigrants transferred €4.25 billion into private accounts in Croatia, per Eurostat.

After Croatia, the member states with the highest GDP share of personal transfers were Latvia and Romania with 3%.

In terms of transfers, Croatia ranks alongside Serbia. Personal transfers have greater importance for the national economy and GDP in Kosovo (18%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (10.5%) and Montenegro (10%). In Slovenia, personal transfers from abroad make up only 1.2% of its GDP.

Per Eurostat, 56% of the €131 billion of all cross-border transfers were made from one EU member state to another, but there were exceptions – 98% of the transfers from Poland, 92.% from Greece and 90% from Spain went to non-EU economies, while 90% of those to Ireland, 86% to Italy and 71% to Lithuania came from outside the EU.

Switzerland was the most attractive extra-EU country for the employment of EU citizens.

Foreigners who were employed in or moved to Croatia in 2021 transferred €534 million to their home countries, of which €226 million to an EU member state and €308 million to third countries.

In 2020, personal transfers to Croatia decreased, but in 2021 they exceeded the amount from 2019.