Stephanie Jackter
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Registered: 11-3-2002
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Remittances to Mexico exceed all sectors but oil exports
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MEXICO_MIGRANTS_M...
Money Sent Home to Mexico Passes Tourism
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican migrant workers sent more money to their home country than either foreign investors or tourists this year, according to
central bank figures released this week.
Since the central Bank of Mexico's current recording format began in 1980, remittances have never before exceeded both tourism and foreign investment
over a six-month period.
Remittances began to gradually outstrip tourism starting in 1998, although some recorded "tourism" is actually Mexicans bringing rather than sending
money to family members.
This year, recorded remittances jumped 29 percent in the first half of 2003 to $6.3 billion, outstripping the $5.2 billion sent in direct foreign
investment.
That's second only to income from oil exports, at more than $8 billion, and well ahead of tourism at $4.9 billion.
Although part of the surge was attributed to higher migration rates, better monitoring and a campaign to make money transfers cheaper and safer also
resulted in more money being tracked as it crossed the border. The use of money orders increased by 104 percent in the first half of 2003 over the
same period of 2002, while hard-to-count cash transfers dropped by 28.6 percent.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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jimmy smith
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Registered: 11-24-2002
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Here are some more figuers to play with:
Experience has taught me that fees and exchange rates knock about 11% off dolars sent from the U.S. via telegraph..
How much in the telegraph making off this remittance money?
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Braulio
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Western Union's doing OK I imagine. Actually there's a class action suit pending on them for overcharging on the exchange rate - but as usual on
these deals the folks that were getting ripped are offered pennies while the attorneys bringing the suit will make millions.
Whatever figure they use for the amount of cash that makes its way south, its got to be low - so much of the income of recent immigrantes is black
market. Who could know what the real numbers are?
Tourism and oil exports require investment, risk, and hard work. Increasing income from mexican expats abroad only requires that the government do a
poor job and drive away its most productive citizens. Kind of weird.
More and more mexicans are just leaving a debit card with relatives in Mexico so they can withdraw it from ATMs. That's the way I'd do it.
Braulio.
[Edited on 9-1-2003 by Braulio]
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Anonymous
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If the exported money that is now supporting an entire country was not exported, but rather, stayed in its country of origin, there would be no
problem with the US economy. The entire premise of manufacturing, jobs, salaries, and a growing economy, etc. is dissipated when the result is that
it supports another country. Exported money should at least be taxed big time, just like any other export commodity.
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JESSE
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That is shameful, our Mexican goverment should be embarassed about those figures, and congress shares most of the blame along with our pal el Sr good
for nothing Vicente Fox.
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