Remittances Slowing

The Financial Times (here) has a fascinating story on the slowing of the growth of remttances sent by migrants to their home countries.  According to the Times, migrant workers sent back more than $62.3bn to their families in Latin America and the Caribbean last year, a rise of 14 per cent on 2005. The figures, which will be released this weekend at the annual conference of the Inter-American Development Bank, confirm that remittances have become one of the region’s most important sources of foreign exchange, exceeding for the fourthyear in a row the combined total for foreign direct investment and overseas aid. 

Remittances still are growing but growth as slowed, almost to a trickle (1%) for Mexico.  This may be a result of increased border enforcement.  And it may be temporary.  It is hard to tell at this point.

My colleague Joel D, one of my best sources, passed this story on to me.

KJ