Remittances for January 2022 continue to show an increase when January 2022 figures are compared to the same month in 2021. Remittances or “Remesas” in Spanish is money sent home to a country by those living, and/or working in the exterior.
Last year, the growth in the US economy, as well as pandemic stimulus money helped boost remittances to Mexico and some Central American countries by more than 25 per cent, setting new records of remittances to those countries having difficulties bouncing back from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The US recovery created a demand for migrant labor and those already working abroad sent more money home to compensate for their home country’s weaker economy.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua continued it’s upward trend in 2022 with US$194.7 million sent back home or 22.6% more than January 2021 (when the figure was US$156.1 million). Source; Central Bank of Nicaragua-BCN.
The United States continues to be the main source of Nicaragua’s remittance income with 67.6 percent of all contributions.
Spain starts the year off with maintaining its second position (12.4 percent) over Costa Rica (Nicaragua’s immediate neighbor to the south) with (11.7 percent). Panama 2.7% and Canada with 1.2% make it to the top five countries which all together sent 95.6 percent of all monies received by Nicaragua in January 2022.
Although a month to month comparison shows a 9% drop in remittances from December 2021 to January 2022 of this year, that would be a post-Christmas seasonal adjustment for the extra money sent home in December for the holidays.
El Salvador
Family remittances received by El Salvador in January 2022 totaled US $ 552.7 million, a growth of 7.4% or US $ 28 million more than January 2021. Over 93 percent of that money came from the United States.
Honduras
Honduras received a total of US $ 583.4 million in January 2022, up 23.5% from the first month of 2021. The estimated “million plus” Hondureños living in the United States sent back 80.3% of that total.
Guatemala
The Bank of Guatemala confirmed that the country took in US $ 1,180 million (1.8 billion) in remittances in January this year (2022). This was the highest amount for a January since records have been kept. In 2021, Guatemala set a new record for remittances received in one year with 15.295 billion dollars. This was 34% more than the 11.340 billion dollars reported in 2020.
Mexico
Although not in “the region”, I have included them to show the staggering numbers involved in remittances to Mexico.
Mexico is coming off a record breaking total of US $51.5 billion sent home in 2021 (a growth of 27.1%).
January started 2022 off with US $3.931 billion dollars which was 19.6% up over January 2021. Source; Banxico (The Bank of Mexico, Mexico’s central bank).
Trivia: It took 10.6 million transactions to send that much money home in January making the average transaction worth US $371 dollars. Mexico accounts for 6.1% of the world remittances and are ranked third in a list of World Receivers of Remittances, after India and China who are first and second respectively.
