Mexico logs biggest 12-month gain in remittances since 2006

Mexico City –  Mexico received $2.08 billion in remittances last month, up 21.2 percent from September 2010 for the biggest 12-month increase since October 2006, the country's central bank said Tuesday.

In the first nine months of the year, remittances amounted to $17.28 billion, 6.6 percent more than during the same period in 2010.

Remittances are Mexico's No. 2 source of revenue after oil exports and constitute a lifeline for many families.

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Mexico Remittances Rise the Most in 5 Years on Cheaper Peso

Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican remittances rose at the fastest pace in five years in September as immigrant workers took advantage of the peso’s decline to send more money to relatives.

Even as economic growth slowed in the U.S., money sent back to Mexico rose 21 percent to $2.08 billion in September from $1.72 billion in the same month a year earlier, the central bank said today. Remittances had not risen as rapidly since October 2006, when they shot up 24 percent, central bank data show.

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MEXICO: MoneyGram and Visa Extend Remittance Service to World’s Largest Remittances Corridor

MoneyGram International (NYSE:MGI), a leading money transfer services company, and Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) announced today the launch of MoneyGram’s first cash-to-Visa account program for remittances from the United States to Mexico.

The program, which is built off of the success of MoneyGram’s cash-to-Visa service in Guatemala, allows consumers to visit any of the 35,000 MoneyGram locations in the U.S. to quickly and reliably send funds directly to eligible Visa accounts in Mexico. Recipients in Mexico receive the funds directly to their Visa credit, debit, or prepaid accounts, giving them convenient access to their funds through Visa’s global network of millions of merchant acceptance locations and ATMs.

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MEXICO: Remittances to Mexico up marginally in 2010

Mexico received a total of $21.27 billion in remittances in 2010, which signifies a small increase of 0.12 percent over the year before, the country's central bank said Tuesday.

"This indicates that remittances barely managed to halt the decline that occurred in 2009 and their recovery has been slow. Remittances depend chiefly on employment in the United States, where the outlook continues to be complicated," a report by the Mexican bank Ixe said.

Remittances constitute the second largest source of foreign currency for Mexico after oil sales.

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MEXICO: Remittances in Mexico Up 9.32% in August

MEXICO CITY – Remittances from Mexican emigrants totaled $1.95 billion in August, up 9.32 percent from the same month of 2009, the Mexican central bank said.

That figure, announced Friday by Banco de Mexico, topped the consensus market forecast of $1.86 billion, Mexican financial group Ixe said in a report. Read more

MEXICO: How important are remittances to Mexico’s economy?

There are millions of Mexican workers in the USA who send a sizable portion of their wages back to their families in Mexico. On a per person basis, Mexico receives more worker remittances than any other major country in the world.

An estimated 20% of Mexican residents regularly receive some financial support from workers abroad. Such remittances are the mainstay of the economies of many Mexican communities, such as many rural areas in Durango, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Jalisco and Michoacán. Studies suggest that the funds sent as remittances are mostly spent on housing, food, clothing and durable consumer goods. A growing portion is being invested in education and small businesses. The corollary is that only a small percentage goes towards savings. Read more

MEXICO: Migrant Dollars Lag

Migrant remittances to the six northern Mexican border states showed a mixed record during the first half of 2010, according to figures from the official Bank of Mexico (Banxico) quoted in an El Paso newspaper. While Baja California, Sonora and Chihuahua registered increases in comparison with the same period of 2009, the states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas all recorded decreases.

For the first six months of 2010, Chihuahua led the border pack in terms of migrant dollars received, registering the capture of $211.9 million. Still, the dollar total was only $200,000 more than the first semester of 2009’s remittances. Counting $131.3 million in remittances, Coahuila came in at the bottom of the list for the first six months of 2010.

Taken as a whole, the northern border region experienced a slight dip in remittances when comparing the first half of 2010 with the same months of 2009. Although about $1.023 billion was received last year, the number dropped to approximately $1.019 billion this year. Read more

Mexico group brings help, discouragement to migrants to US

NOGALES, Mexico—A letter written by a migrant before he died in the desert is one tool used by a Mexican group which tries to persuade its compatriots to think twice about crossing the border into Arizona.

"My name is Arturo Gomez. The people trafficker tricked us. He said he knew a lot but it wasn't true. There were 14 of us, we can't all endure this. Goodbye," read the crumpled letter found eight years ago near 14 bodies in the scorching desert between Arizona, in the United States, and the Mexican state of Sonora.

The Beta Group also informs migrants of their rights and rescues wounded and lost people on the vast 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) US-Mexico border. Read more

Mexico's Family Remittances Rose 12% In May To $2.13 Billion

MEXICO CITY -(Dow Jones)- Remittances received by Mexicans from family members living abroad grew in May at the fastest pace in nearly four years, the Bank of Mexico said Thursday.

Mexico's family remittances rose 12% in May from a year ago to $2.13 billion, according to data published on the central bank's website.

May was the second consecutive month that remittances rose in annual terms, following a 17-month slide amid the economic recession in the U.S., where the majority of Mexican migrants seek employment. Read more

Remittances to Mexico increase slightly for first time since '08

By Andres R. Martinez

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s peso bonds rose, pushing yields to the lowest level in almost three years, as rising remittances signaled the economic recovery is accelerating.

The yield on Mexico’s 10 percent peso bond due in 2024 fell five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 7.54 percent at 5 p.m. New York time, according to Banco Santander SA, the lowest level since June 5, 2007. The price of the security rose 0.54 centavo to 121.63 centavos per peso.

“The downside risks are relatively lower than other global emerging markets,” said Aryam Vazquez, an emerging-markets economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in New York. “It’s a testament to the improved risk profile. Mexico’s economy is recovering better than what many expected.”

The currency dropped 0.3 percent to 12.9700 per dollar, from 12.9346 yesterday. The drop pared the peso’s gain this year to 0.9 percent against the dollar. Read more

Mexico’s Peso Bond Yields Fall to Lowest Since 2007 on Economy

By Andres R. Martinez

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s peso bonds rose, pushing yields to the lowest level in almost three years, as rising remittances signaled the economic recovery is accelerating.

The yield on Mexico’s 10 percent peso bond due in 2024 fell five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 7.54 percent at 5 p.m. New York time, according to Banco Santander SA, the lowest level since June 5, 2007. The price of the security rose 0.54 centavo to 121.63 centavos per peso.

“The downside risks are relatively lower than other global emerging markets,” said Aryam Vazquez, an emerging-markets economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in New York. “It’s a testament to the improved risk profile. Mexico’s economy is recovering better than what many expected.”

The currency dropped 0.3 percent to 12.9700 per dollar, from 12.9346 yesterday. The drop pared the peso’s gain this year to 0.9 percent against the dollar. Read more

Some S. Fla. day laborers say economy is improving

Some South Florida day laborers say the economy may be improving because more people are willing to hire them.

Cesar Jimenez, 35, a Mexican migrant worker from Guanajuato, Mexico, leans against the wall of a convenience store in Homestead while he and other day laborers wait for prospective employers.

ROBERTO KOLTUN / EL NUEVO HERALD STAFF

• Photo

By ALFONSO CHARDY

achardy@ElNuevoHerald.com

Just when day laborer César Jiménez thought he would be returning home empty-handed, he got lucky.
A red van drove up and picked up Jiménez, a Mexican migrant worker and a fellow day laborer for a day's work filling buckets with tomatoes at a nearby Homestead farm.
That Jiménez got work at all is perhaps symbolic of the optimism felt by some that the economy is slowly coming back, at least for day labor.
Recent surveys show that remittances to families in Latin America are stabilizing after severe declines last year and orders of construction materials are increasing

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/15/1631842/some-s-fla-day-laborers-say-economy.html#ixzz0o8O5JouQ

Mexico Sees Record Drop in Remittances

(AP) Money sent home by Mexicans abroad plunged a record 15.7 percent in 2009 as migrants worldwide struggled to find work during the global economic slowdown, the central bank reported Wednesday.

Remittances - Mexico's No. 2 source of foreign income after oil exports - totaled $21.2 billion in 2009, compared with $25.1 billion in 2008, the bank said.

Since the bank began tracking remittances in 1996, it has recorded just one other annual decline - a 3.6 percent decrease in 2008, as the world financial crisis exploded. Read more

Wells Fargo Adds ExpressSend® Remittance Paying Agent in Mexico and Expands to 8 Additional Latin American Countries

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) has more than doubled the number of countries that can receive Wells Fargo ExpressSend remittance transactions – expanding to Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. Additionally, Wells Fargo has added Telecomunicaciones de Mexico (Telecomm Telegrafos) – one of the largest telecommunications companies in Mexico – as a new paying agent. Customers can now remit to an additional 1,560 new payout locations in Mexico, bringing the total payout locations in Mexico to more than 5,500 locations.

“Mexico is one of the largest remittance corridors and a key driver for our remittance business”

“The expansion of our consumer remittance network in Latin America reflects on our long-standing commitment to satisfying all of our customers financial services needs,” said Daniel Ayala, executive vice president and head of Wells Fargo's Global Remittance Services. “Our Hispanic customer base is made of immigrants from a number of Latin American countries. Wells Fargo wants to be the bank of choice for this increasingly important high growth consumer segment.” Read more

MEXICO: UPDATE 2-Mexico migrant remittances fall in Nov

Fri, Jan 2 2009, 18:54 GMT
http://www.afxnews.com

MEXICO CITY, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Mexicans living abroad sent less money home in November compared with the same month a year ago, the central bank said on Friday.

Remittances, one of Mexico's biggest sources of foreign currency, fell 10.68 percent in November to $1.607 billion, the bank said.

Migrant cash flows, which are a lifeline for millions of poor Mexican families, are expected to weaken more in the coming months as the U.S. economic slowdown hits Mexican workers living there.

A weakening in the U.S. construction and manufacturing sectors is weighing particularly heavily on migrants, whose jobless rate jumped higher than that of the general U.S. population during 2008. Read more

Mexican Remittances Fall at Lowest Rate in 8 Months

By Crayton Harrison

Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican remittances fell 14 percent in November, the smallest decline in eight months, as U.S. job cuts slowed.

Money sent from workers living outside Mexico declined to $1.5 billion in November from $1.75 billion in the same month a year earlier, the central bank said today on its Web site. It was the smallest decline since a 0.55 percent drop in March.

Mexicans in the U.S. may have benefited as U.S. job losses reached their lowest in 23 months, signaling that the economic recovery is pulling the labor market out of its slump. Employers cut 11,000 jobs in November, bringing the total decline in the U.S. job market to 7.2 million jobs since December 2007.

The decline in remittances to Mexico peaked in October with a record 36 percent drop from a year earlier.

To contact the reporter on this story: Crayton Harrison in Mexico City at tharrison5@bloomberg.net

Source

MÉXICO - Hard Times for Remittances

The amount of money sent by migrants from the U.S. will fall 13.4% this year

In 2009, according to BBVA Bancomer, remittances sent by Mexicans residing in the U.S. will fall 13%. Between Jan. and Sept. of this year, according to figures from Banco de Mexico, which the financial institution cites, the money sent from this migrant sector will add up to $16,438 million, representing a 13.4% drop compared with the same period in 2008. For 2010, according to the bank, remittances will see a quick rebound growing between 1 and 5%. Source

MEXICO: MÉXICO - Slight Increase in Remittances

Although falling at an annual rate, shipment averages increase in July

During the second quarter, remittances sent home by Mexicans working abroad slumped by 18% in annual terms, however, according to the Bank of Mexico (Banxico), the per consignment average for July showed a slight improvement amounting to $323 per shipment, a figure close to the $345 average in 2008. For Mexico’s poorest families, remittances represent 14% of their total income.
08-Sep-2009 03:09pm

Sources

MEXICO: Mexican Households Getting Remittances Down 15 Percent

MEXICO CITY – The number of Mexican homes that received remittances from abroad fell by 14.8 percent between 2006 and 2008, BBVA Bamcomer said in a report released Monday.

During that period, more than 275,000 families “stopped counting on this important source of income,” said the Spanish-owned bank in an analysis of the Mexican government’s 2008 National Household Incone and Expenditures Survey, or ENIGH.

Thus, if in 2006 a total of 1.86 million families received remittances, in 2008 that figure fell to 1.58 million.

Remittances – overwhelmingly from the United States – constitute Mexico’s No. 2 source of revenue after oil exports. Read more

Remittances to Mexico down sharply

In another blow to Mexico's economy, the central bank reports the largest monthly decline yet in the amount of money Mexicans working abroad send home. Remittances for April are down 18.6%.


By Tracy Wilkinson
June 2, 2009


Reporting from Mexico City -- Mexico's reeling economy received another jolt of bad news Monday with reports of the largest monthly decline yet in the amount of money Mexicans working abroad send home.

Remittances for the month of April totaled about $1.7 billion, 18.6% less than the $2.1 billion recorded in April 2008, Mexico's central bank said. Read more