In 2021, flows of money sent by residents of the EU to non-EU countries, referred to as personal transfers, amounted to €37.7 billion (+11% compared with €34.0 bn in 2020). Inflows to the EU totalled €13.0 bn (+5% compared with €12.4 bn in 2020). The majority of personal transfers consist of flows of money sent by migrants to their country of origin.

Extra-EU outflows have displayed a growing trend since 2015 (+47% in 2021 compared with 2015). As inflows have remained constant, this has resulted in a widening negative balance for the EU vis-à-vis non-EU countries, reaching €24.7 bn in 2021. 

Source dataset:  bop_rem6

Weight of net personal transfers of the EU economies

In 2021, the EU countries that generated surpluses of personal transfers, representing more than 1% of their respective gross domestic product (GDP), were Croatia (2.7% of GDP), Bulgaria (1.6%), Romania (1.5%) and Latvia (1.1%).

Source dataset:  bop_rem6 and nama_10_gdp

In contrast, Cyprus (-0.9%), France and Spain (each -0.5%) generated the largest deficits of personal transfers vis-à-vis the rest of the world as a share of their respective GDP.