The World Bank (WB) announced that in the first nine months of 2022 remittances to the region grew by 9.3%, which means that they totaled around $142,000 million dollars, the largest increase worldwide compared to other regions.
“Migrants helped ease the rigidity of labor markets in host countries while helping their families through remittances,” said Michal Rutkowski, global director of the World Bank’s Social Protection and Labor Global Practice.
“Inclusive social protection policies have helped workers weather the income and employment uncertainties created by the Covid-19 pandemic. These policies generate global impacts through remittances and must continue to be applied,” added Rutkowski.
According to the World Bank, the data corresponding to the first nine months of 2022 indicate an increase of 45% for Nicaragua, 20% for Guatemala, 15% for Mexico and 9% for Colombia.
“The employment growth of Latin American migrants in the United States contributed to remittance flows. In turn, remittances received by migrants in transit also contributed to solid flows in Mexico and Central America,” says the WB statement.
Remittances, as a percentage of GDP, exceeded 20% in El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, and Haiti.
By 2023, the World Bank anticipates that remittances will be more likely to grow more moderately, at 4.7%, due to less favorable economic prospects in the United States, Italy and Spain.
The report also indicates that the cost of sending $200 to the Latin American region rose, on average, to 6% in the second quarter of 2022, compared to 5.6% the previous year.
In Mexico, 25% of households receive remittances, while in Nicaragua, 50% receive them. The money that arrives from abroad is equivalent to 60% of the income of the receiving families and, on average, it is 15% of the income of those who send it.
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