The corona pandemic, which has been rampant for a year and a half, has far-reaching economic and therefore drastic financial consequences for many people around the world.

Nevertheless, in the previous year, a similar amount of money from the euro area apparently flowed abroad as in the previous year.

This is the result of an analysis by the technology company for money transfers Wise on the basis of data from the World Bank, among others.

According to this, the residents of the euro zone transferred the equivalent of around 77.2 billion euros abroad in 2020 in order to support their families and friends financially.

Foreign transfers by migrants to their home countries are also called "remittances" in the professional world.

Kerstin Papon

Editor in business.

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Due to the influence of exchange rates and various national inflation rates, however, a euro that arrives abroad is rarely worth exactly one euro there. With the help of exchange rate developments and inflation rates, Wise has therefore investigated the question of where the euro and thus also the aid transfers are now worth more or less than in 2019. According to these calculations, the euro was in around five dozen countries (58 of 88 examined) by the middle of the year worth up to 25 percent more than before the start of the pandemic.

The nations with the greatest change in value include Zambia with an increase of around 26 percent and Brazil with 25 percent. An example: If you had the equivalent of 100 euros available after a transfer in 2019, for example to buy 100 water bottles, you can now purchase 125 bottles in Brazil with the same transfer, according to Wise. This is mainly due to the fact that the Brazilian real has lost around 40 percent of its value against the euro.

The corona crisis has caused great turmoil in the financial markets around the world and led to strong fluctuations in exchange rates, says Pedro Martin, an analyst at Wise. This also has a direct impact - positive as well as negative - on the benefits of Remissen. Anyone who regularly sends money to their family or friends abroad should therefore always take a look at the exchange rates in order to find a good time.

However, the currency impact only accounts for part of the value differences. Added to this is inflation, which is significantly higher in many countries around the world than in Europe. In Germany, for example, consumer prices in June were 2.3 percent above the previous year, according to the Federal Statistical Office. In Brazil, for example, a transfer without this influence would offer even more options (plus 3 or 6 percent, in 2020 and 2021), says Wise. According to the analysis, the effect can be felt even more strongly in other South American countries, such as Colombia (15.8 percent), Uruguay (14.9 percent) or Peru (14.5 percent). Among the nations in which the euro is now worth significantly more overall than two years ago are Turkey and Russia - compared to 2019, the plus here is almost 13 percent each.

There is of course the opposite development and countries in which one euro is now worth significantly less. Lebanon heads this list. Inflation values ​​of up to 122 percent alone have a significant impact here, says Wise. The economic crisis of this battered country is getting worse and the currency is in free fall. Haiti (minus 32 percent), Tunisia (12.3) and Egypt (11.5) follow in the analysis as some of the few countries with double-digit negative performance.