Remittances kick off the year with a 20% increase

Remittance payments topped a landmark US $50 billion in 2021 and continued that strong performance in January.

The Bank of México reported that payments totaled US $3.93 billion in the first 31 days of 2022, a 19.6% increase on the figure for January 2021.

There were 10,589 remittances sent in January with an average value of $371. That was 10.4% more payments than in January last year and the average payment was 8.3% higher.

However, the total received for the first month of 2022 was still a fall on the previous month: 17.2% less than in December, when $4.75 billion was received. January also ended a run of eight consecutive months with payments over $4 billion.

It was a record breaking year in 2021 for remittances, which were $10 billion higher than in 2020.

The money is typically sent home by Mexican nationals living in the United States, but some experts speculate that an unknown percentage of remittances are part of money laundering schemes by criminals in Mexico.

President López Obrador has thanked the 38 million Mexicans in the United States for their contribution to the Mexican economy on various occasions. He has described those migrants as heroes and estimated that their payments benefit around 10 million families.

Remittances are Mexico’s second largest source of foreign currency after automotive exports.

Mexico News Daily