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Family remittances to 17 Latin American and the Caribbean countries grew over 8% from 2016 to 2017, reaching US$75 billion. This increase is substantial and far exceeds the World Bank’s forecasted 1.2% economic growth for the entire region. In terms of scale, remittance growth has been nearly as large as export growth (9%) in 2017.
Growth in remittances is being driven predominantly by migration patterns in countries such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Colombia, which represent 45% of flows in remittances and experienced growth of over 10% last year. In fact, for Central America and the Caribbean, the projected 3.5% economic growth for these countries is due largely to the combined 15% increase in remittances.
Other drivers of remittance growth include the continued demand for foreign labor in the United States economy, and to a lesser extent the dollar devaluations in countries like Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica.
Table: Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean, 2017 growth (US$,000,000)
Country |
Remittance inflows |
Percentage Growth |
Remittances as Percentage of GDP |
|||
2015 |
2016 |
2017 est. |
2016 |
mmmm2017 |
||
|
Bolivia |
1,178 |
1,204 |
1,278 |
2% |
6% |
3.6% |
|
Brazil |
2,175 |
2,365 |
2,285 |
9% |
-3% |
0.1% |
|
Colombia |
4,635 |
4,859 |
5,579 |
5% |
15% |
1.9% |
|
Costa Rica |
517 |
515 |
530 |
0% |
3% |
0.1% |
|
Dominican Republic |
4,963 |
5,261 |
5,895 |
6% |
12% |
7.8% |
|
Ecuador |
2,378 |
2,602 |
2,721 |
9% |
5% |
2.8% |
|
El Salvador |
4,284 |
4,576 |
5,021* |
7% |
10% |
18.3% |
|
Guatemala |
6,285 |
7,160 |
8,192* |
14% |
14% |
11.5% |
|
Haiti |
2,195 |
2358.65 |
2,722* |
7% |
15% |
33.6% |
|
Honduras |
3,651 |
3,847 |
4,331 |
5% |
13% |
19.5% |
|
Jamaica |
2,226 |
2,287 |
2,374 |
3% |
4% |
16.7% |
|
Mexico |
24,771 |
26,993 |
28,630 |
9% |
6% |
2.7% |
|
Nicaragua |
1,193 |
1,264 |
1,409 |
6% |
11% |
10.2% |
|
Panama |
473 |
426 |
442 |
-10% |
4% |
0.8% |
|
Paraguay |
461 |
547 |
582 |
19% |
6% |
2.0% |
|
Peru |
2,719 |
2,884 |
3,061 |
6% |
6% |
1.6% |
|
Selected countries |
64,106 |
69,149 |
75,052 |
7.87% |
8.54% |
1.9% |
Source: Central banks data and INEC for Panama data. Est. are author’s estimates, except *: Central Bank data. Growth is 8.7% excluding Brazil. GDP calculations based on World Bank Data.
