Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean increased 9.3% in the first 9 months of 2022: WB

The volume of money sent by migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean to their families increased 9.3% in 2022, but this growth will not be sustained in 2023 due to economic prospects and inflation, reported Wednesday the world Bank.

Remittances to the region have increased 9.3% to reach 142,000 million dollars, it indicates in a report with data for the first nine months of 2022.

The increase is very uneven: 45% for Nicaragua, 20% for Guatemala, 15% for Mexico and 9% for Colombia, among others.

“The growth in the employment of Latin American migrants in the United States contributed to remittance flows,” the World Bank said in a statement, which also highlighted the money sent by migrants in transit that contributed “to solid flows in Mexico and America Central”.

Remittances, as a percentage of GDP, exceeded 20% in The Savior, Honduras, Jamaica y Haiti.

For next year the bank’s forecasts are less optimistic: “Remittances are likely to grow more moderately, at 4.7%, due to less favorable economic prospects in the United States, Italy and Spain.”

The cost of sending $200 to the region remains high, averaging 6% in the second quarter of 2022, compared with 5.6% the year before. It is cheaper through mobile phone operators, but digital channels represent less than 1% of the total volume of transfers.

“The burden of complying with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regulations continues to limit access,” the statement said.

world growth

Globally, remittances increased by around 5%, to $626 billion, a figure well below the 10.2% in 2021, the financial institution says.

Remittances are an essential source of income for households in low- and middle-income countries, as they alleviate poverty, are associated with better nutritional outcomes and higher school enrollment rates, as well as improvements in housing and capacity coping with losses after a natural disaster.

In 2022, remittance flows were affected by opposite factors: the increase in the employment of migrants after the pandemic of Covid-19inflation and currency prices.
Globally, Africa is perhaps the region hardest hit, amid severe drought and rising energy and commodity prices. Remittances to sub-Saharan Africa are estimated to have increased by 5.2%, much less than the 16.4% in 2021.

Instead, they have grown by 10.3% in Europe and Central Asia, 3.5% in South Asia, 2.5% in the Middle East and North Africa and 0.7% in East Asia and the Pacific.

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