Remittances to Mexico increase 21% in the first two months of the year

Antonio Morales, like other children in Mexico, takes classes in his parents' business, since they have no one to stay at home with.Daniel Augusto / CUARTOSCURO

Remittances to Mexico continue to increase.

In February, 3,173 million dollars entered the country in remittances from abroad, as reported by the Bank of Mexico on Monday.

In the first two months of the year, migrants outside the country sent a total of 6,471 million dollars, 20.9% more than the 5,352 million sent in the same period the previous year and before the pandemic paralyzed economic activity with the closing of business.

Remittances are one of the ways in which Mexico benefits from public spending made by the United States to stimulate its economy, contributing to the portfolios of Americans who send resources to their families in Mexico.

The most recent data from the Pew Research Center estimates that some 36.6 million Americans are of Mexican origin, of which 11 million were born in Mexico.

The administration of President Joe Biden began the delivery of checks for $ 1,400 to families in that country as part of a historic plan to stimulate the economy and recover the ground lost by the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, the United States reported that 916,000 job positions were created during March, the highest monthly job creation since August.

The sending of remittances tends to have a seasonal behavior, according to the economic cycle in the US and January and February tend to see falls.

Although remittances had a slight decrease compared to December 2020, the amount sent was the highest of any February in the last 15 years.

Specialists in the private sector improved their growth outlook for Mexico's gross domestic product (GDP), according to the results of their survey conducted by the Bank of Mexico and also published on Monday.

The average GDP growth expectation for 2021 is 4.53%, below the 5.3% estimated by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.

The main factors cited by those surveyed include weakness in the domestic market, internal political and economic uncertainty in the country, problems of public insecurity and "other problems of lack of rule of law."

Mexico's GDP fell 8.5% last year, its worst slump since the Great Depression.

Inflation expectations both for the end of this year and for 2022 also increased in relation to the February survey, as well as that of the exchange rate against the dollar.

Inflation accelerated in the first two weeks of March and reached 4.12%, the worst figure in almost two years and above the central bank's target range.

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