Record Mexican Remittances More than Tourism Dollars!

Remittances sent byMexicans living abroad to their hometowns reached record numbers from Januaryto November 2005, according to a report issued this week by Mexico’s centralbank.

The report shows thatMexicans sent almost $18.3 billion back to their country. That is an increaseof 20.43 percent over the same period in 2004.

According to Banco de México,remittances continue as the second-greatest source of revenue for the country,behind petroleum. Between January and November 2005, oil revenues reached $25.7billion.

Remittances exceeded revenues generated by tourism in Mexico, although exact figures for that part of the economy were not available.

Most of the money was sentby immigrants from the states of Zacatecas, Michoacán, Jalisco and Guanajuato.If this trend continued through the end of the year, 2005 remittances couldexceed $20 billion.

Explanations experts offered for theincrease in remittances included a new wave of immigrants and trackingimprovements that make remittances easier to measure.

Source: Dallas Morning News, Jan. 20, 2006
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