This is associated with the fact that the economic recovery in Mexico has been more gradual than that of the United States and this causes the countrymen to have excess income, while families in Mexico have deficits”.
Janneth Quiroz Zamora, deputy director of economic analysis at Monex.
In February, Mexico received remittances for 3,910 million dollars, this represented an increase of 23.3% at the annual rate and the highest amount since there is a record for a second month, the Bank of Mexico revealed this Friday.
In this way, in the first two months of 2022, income from remittances totaled 7,841 million dollars, which meant an annual increase of 21.4 percent. In the first two months of 2021, the accumulated figure was 6,458 million dollars.
Remittances managed to spin 22 consecutive months with growth at an annual rate, a streak that began in May 2020, with an average annual increase of 20% during that period, details an analysis by BBVA Research.
“Remittances show us the behavior of the economy in the United States, because despite the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, fellow citizens continue to send money. In addition, it confirms that the crisis in that country only lasted two months,” said Janneth Quiroz Zamora, deputy director of economic analysis at Monex, in an interview.
During February, annual increases were observed in the amount of the remittance sent, since it went from 351 to 375 dollars. In the accumulated, an average remittance of 373 dollars is appreciated, instead of the 347 dollars registered in the first two months of 2021.
“This is associated with the fact that the economic recovery in Mexico has been more gradual than that of the United States and this causes the countrymen to have excess income, while families in Mexico have deficits; also considering inflation, which causes a decrease in the purchasing power of families”, commented Quiroz Zamora.
Meanwhile, compared to January, remittances showed a decrease of 0.53%; Given this, Banco Base pointed out that historically the performance of remittances during the second month of the year tends to be unstable. However, during the previous five years, the average monthly performance was a contraction of 0.26%, so the monthly fall in February was slightly larger than usual, they explained.
The analysis of the banking institution stated that the monthly contraction of remittances during February was explained by the decrease in the number of operations (10.4 million in February), given that the average remittance showed a monthly growth of 1.08% (371 dollars were sent on average during January).
For this 2022, Banco Base projects a growth in remittances of 12.8% compared to the previous year, reaching nearly 58.2 billion dollars. While Banorte expects remittances to grow 9.5% this year compared to 2021 to an amount close to 56.5 billion dollars.
The foregoing, explains Banco Base, as a result of the accelerated growth of wages in the United States, mainly in the leisure and hospitality, commerce and transportation, and basic services industries.
Remittances received in Mexico throughout 2021 totaled 51,594 million dollars, a record figure.
Migrant workers exceed 7 million
BBVA Research specialists also explain in their report that by February 2022 the Mexican migrant population working in the United States increased to 7.6 million people, a level 3.1% higher than that of the second month of 2020.
“The growing demand for workforce in the United States during the pandemic in essential sectors attracted the workforce of the migrant population, mainly from Mexico and Central America, which has driven the increase in remittances to these countries,” the bank said. Spanish.
In this sense, both the Mexican and Hispanic migrant populations have had a more favorable recovery than the general average in the United States, which has not yet managed to recover its pre-pandemic levels.
On the opposite side, the unemployment rate of the Mexican migrant population stood at 4.3% in February 2022. Although it has shown decreases, “it is still above the average observed in 2019, which was 3.5%”, explains BBVA Research. .
transactions
The central bank specified that a total of 10.4 million transactions were carried out in February, with an average shipment of 375 dollars, that is increases of 15.6 and 6.7%, respectively.
Similarly, it was reported that 98.8% of total income from remittances in the period was made through electronic transfers.
For their part, remittances made in cash and kind and money orders represented, respectively, 0.8 and 0.4 percent.
