Slovaks ex-pats’ support equals €2 billion

Slovaks living abroad will send home almost €2 billion. This stems from the World Bank's latest estimates on how migrants financially support their home countries. Compared to the last year, Slovak families will receive €60 million more. According to Vladimír Baláž from the Institute for Forecasting of the Slovak Academy of Sciences about 7% of the Slovak labour force is working abroad. "Of course, their salaries are much higher than those in Slovakia. We estimate that about 10% of the taxed net income of Slovaks is rooted abroad," said Baláž. The €2 billion flowing to Slovakia represents 2.5 % of the economy's production, ranking Slovakia among the record holders within the European Union. The influence of the money sent back home from abroad is considerably lower in Germany, France or in Greece.