Slow remittances from US migrants hit Latin America

By Robin Emmott

MONTERREY, Mexico, July 12 (Reuters) - Stricter U.S. border controls and a housing slump are cooling the once red-hot growth in remittances migrant workers send to Latin America, challenging economies to cut their dependence on the money flows.

Cash sent home by Mexicans living abroad fell 5.5 percent in May, the first fall since 1999, and countries across Latin America forecast that the growth of remittance flows will slow substantially this year.

"Remittances will definitely suffer a slowdown. We cannot depend only on remittances. We must increase our productive base, especially our exports," Honduras' central bank president, Gabriela Nunez, told Reuters this week.
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