Remittances to Latin America top record set in 2008

Washington, May 13 (IANS/EFE) The volume of remittances received in Latin America last year topped the previous high of $65 billion reached in 2008, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said, crediting the increase to an improving US economy.

Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean in 2014 totalled $65.38 billion, the IDB said on Tuesday.

The economic crisis continues to affect European countries like Spain, a situation that has seriously affected the sending of remittances to South America -- the principal reason for immigration to the Iberian nation.

Mexico continues to be Latin America's chief magnet for remittances, taking more than a third of the total. As funds come largely from the US, Mexico suffered greatly from the 2008 financial crisis.

The current drop in unemployment and the moderate improvement of wages in the world's leading economy have improved the possibilities of sending remittances home from the US.

At the close of 2014 there were 21.8 million immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean in the US.

In 2014, the average weekly pay of immigrants to the US was some $594, the most that has been seen in the past 14 years.

Remittances continue to represent an important source of foreign currency in many Latin American countries, to the point that in some countries like Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua they provide more than a sixth of the gross domestic product.

In Haiti, the poorest country of the region, remittances comprise a fourth of GDP.

--IANS/EFE

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