Remittances Grow 19.6 Percent in 2022

The Bank of Mexico (Banxico) reported that remittances grew significantly during 2021, with the country registering an annual increase of 19.6 percent.

Despite their significant growth during 2021, remittances sent by Mexican residents abroad during Jan. 2022 were similar to those of Jan. 2021, according to Banxico’s latest report.

During that period, nearly US$81 billion were sent outside of Mexico but the country still has a US$3.8 billion surplus, which also surpassed last year’s US$3.2 billion surplus.

“With seasonally adjusted figures, in the first month of 2022 income from remittances increased at a monthly rate of 1.3 percent, while remittance outflows fell to a monthly rate of 8.9 percent. In this way, in Jan. 2022 the surplus of the remittance account was US$4.6 billion, higher than the US$4.5 billion presented in Dec. 2021,” reads Banxico’s report.

There is a strong concentration of the monetary volume of remittances in 10 countries with India, China and Mexico at the top, according to BBVA research. The other countries are Philippines, Egypt, Pakistan, France, Bangladesh, Germany and Vietnam, as reported by MBN.

Banxico also reported that since February 2021, the accumulated flow of remittances sent abroad was US$1 billion, which is approximately to the Jan.-Dec. 2021 period. The recent flow of remittances might be linked to the massive increase of migrants to the US, as reported by MBN.

“In the first month of 2022, income from remittances from abroad stood at US$3.9 billion derived from 10.6 million transactions, with one shipment average of US$371. This way, in Jan. 2022, income from remittances showed an annual growth of 19.6 percent, the result of advances of 10.4 percent in the number of remittances and 8.3 percent in the amount of the average remittance,” explained Banxico.

Mexico’s residents sent nearly 168,000 remittances abroad, with an average value of US$481. This figure is similar to that of 2021 and follows a combination of a 3.4 percent annual growth in the number of transfers and a 3.3 percent decrease in the value of the average remittance.