Remittances to Mexico drop

Mexico City, April 2 (IANS/EFE) Mexico received $1.58 billion in remittances in February, 11.1 percent below the amount recorded in the same month of 2012, the country’s central bank said.

This was the eighth straight month in which remittances declined on an inter-annual basis.

In the second month of 2013, the average remittance was $293.17, less than the $320.34 in February of 2012, the Bank of Mexico said in its monthly report Monday.

In February, 5.4 million transactions were recorded, most of them electronic transfers.

Remittances to Mexico totaled $22.45 billion last year, a decline of 1.57 percent from 2011.

Remittances from expatriates are Mexico’s second-largest source of foreign exchange after oil exports and help cover living expenses for millions of households.

Most of the money is sent from the US, where an estimated 12 million Mexicans live, about half of them undocumented migrants.

–IANS/EFE

rd

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.