Page last updated at 23:40 GMT, Tuesday, 27 January 2009

Slowdown hits Mexico remittances

Dollar notes
Mexican migrant workers are sending less money home to their families

Mexicans living abroad sent home less money per year in 2008 for the first time on record as the US slowdown hit migrants' earnings.

According to Mexico's central bank, remittances fell 3.6% in 2008 to $25bn.

This money is the country's second largest source of foreign income after oil revenues.


The central bank said the fall was the first annual drop since it started keeping track of remittances in 1995.

Flows of remittances from the US to Mexico are among the largest among all migrant workers worldwide.

Overall, remittances from workers to their home countries make up an estimated $300bn, three times the level of foreign aid.

Print Sponsor

Heading back across the border
18 Dec 08 |  Americas
Migrant workers under pressure
16 Dec 08 |  Special Reports
Mexicans sending home less money
02 Sep 08 |  Business
Mexico caps price of basic foods
19 Jun 08 |  Business
US woes slow migrant remittances
12 Mar 08 |  Americas

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

Has China's housing bubble burst?
How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire
Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit


Sign in

BBC navigation



Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific