This article highlights my interest in this subject and hence our regular look at Nicaraguan remittances, the money sent back home by Nicaraguans living outside of the country.
The Central Bank of Nicaragua (El Banco Central de Nicaragua – BCN) has published the statistics for the month of November 2021.
November remittances were US $ 186.6 million dollars, an increase of 22.5% over November 2020.
With one month left to report, the Central Bank of Nicaragua numbers show that during the 11 months of 2021 reported so far, US $1,933.2 million (US $1.933 billion) has been sent back to Nicaragua by those living and/or working in other countries. Almost 16.5% more than the same period last year.
In 2020, the year-end total was US $1.851.4 billion received. If the monthly 2021 average of about US $176 million is sent home in December, the total remittances for 2021 will be a little over US $2.1 billion.
Previous Years
Year Total Remittances in US Dollars
2012 1.009 Billion
2013 1.081 Billion
2014 1.140 Billion
2015 1.197 Billion
2016 1.26 Billion
2017 1.39 Billion
2018 1.50 Billion
2019 1.68 Billion
2020 1.85 Billion
Where From
In November, the top five (5) countries of origin by percentage of the total sent combine for 95.3% of all Nicaraguan remittances. They are;
United States 67.0%
Spain 12.6%
Costa Rica 11.7%
Panama 7%,
Canada 1.3%
Nicaraguans in the United States have so far sent 22.8% more money this year than last year and Spain registered a year-on-year growth of 14.0%.
The same “Top Five” in millions of US Dollars from January to November totals for each country are;
United States 1,231.0
Spain 275.9
Costa Rica 239.7
Panama 63.0
Canada 27.7
Historical Chart
This link shows the remittances by month and by country since 2016. As you can see, for the last six years the month of December shows a huge increase in money sent home.
Also, the chart shows how Costa Rica has slipped into third place behind Spain since the Covid-19 Pandemic started taking an effect on employment in the second quarter of 2020.
Previous Nica-Biz article; Nicaraguan families received a total of US $1.030 Billion that was sent back to Nicaragua in the first half of 2021.
