Total outflows in the 27 EU member states were 30.3 billion euro, a number that included remittance flows both inside the bloc and to third countries.
Remittances to countries outside the EU remained unchanged compared to 2008 as a share of the total at 73 per cent, Eurostat said in a statement. In absolute terms, remittances to third countries stood at 22 billion euro in 2009.
Spain remained the single largest source of worker remittances – money sent by migrants to their country of origin – in the EU at 7.15 billion euro, down from 7.9 billion in 2008. Italy was second, narrowing the gap and reporting an increase in remittances to 6.75 billion euro, compared to 6.38 billion a year earlier.
France saw remittances shrink from 3.4 billion euro to 2.85 billion euro, while Germany (3.1 billion euro to three billion euro) and the Netherlands (1.56 billion euro to 1.5 billion euro), posted much smaller declines.
Outflows from Bulgaria fell from 23 million euro in 2008 (including nine million outside the bloc) to 10 million euro in 2009 (including four million outside the bloc).
Five countries – Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and Sweden – kept their remittances data confidential, but it was included Eurostat's final figure, the statistics bureau said. Data for the UK was not available and had to be estimated.