The Central Bank of Nicaragua (El Banco Central de Nicaragua or BCN) has now released the final figures for 2023 in relation to the record remittances entering Nicaragua.
Q4 2023 – At US $1.226 billion (up 26.9 percent compared to the same quarter of 2022 which was US $966.5 million), the fourth quarter of 2023 revealed a continuing trend in growth for money sent home to Nicaragua by those living and working abroad..
When added to the 3 previous quarters of 2023, the total in remittances for 2023 was US $4.660 billion, which is 44.5% up on 2022 which had a total of US $ 3.224 billion in remittances.
Total Remittances for 2023 were US $4.660 billion
The Central Bank of Nicaragua tracks all transactions in and out of the country through banks and other financial institutions, including the many online remittance services such as Western Union, Money Gram, Xoom, Remitly etc.
BCN figures show that 99.2 percent of all remittances came through commercial banks and remittance services.
The average amount per remittance transaction was US $268.50 and the number of individual transactions increased by 39.7 percent.
Where does it come from?
The United States continues to lead the pack with an 82.4 percent contribution of the total, a figure of 3.841 billion dollars and 55.5 percent more than was sent in 2022 (US$ 2.469 billion).
The average amount of each remittance received in 2023 was US $271.30 (which was 5.2 percent lower than what was observed in 2022, however the number of transactions in 2023 increased by 38.6 percent).
Completing the top five countries are; Costa Rica with 7.1% of the total, Spain with 5.9% and Panama with 1.2%.
Other countries include; Canada, El Salvador and Mexico who collectively sent a total of US $ 210.5 million in 2023 (US $209.2 million in 2022).
Distribution in Nicaragua
Managua is the destination that receives 25.7 percent of all remittances. Others are; Matagalpa (10.5%), Chinandega (9.2%), Nueva Segovia (7.4%), León (7.3%), Estelí (7.1%), Jinotega (5.3%), RACCS (5.3%), RACCN (4.7%) and together receive 82.5 percent of the total.
Remittances received by Nicaragua are estimated to be equal to about 28% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
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