Mexico's remittances surged 27% in 2021 to $51.6 billion

Mexico’s central bank says the money migrants send home to their relatives grew by 27.1% in 2021 to $51.6 billion

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico’s central bank says remittances — the money migrants send home to their relatives — grew by 27.1% in 2021 to total about $51.6 billion for the year as a whole.

That is a record amount, despite the coronavirus pandemic, and would surpass almost all other sources of Mexico’s foreign income, including tourism, oil exports and most manufacturing exports.

The bank said Tuesday the phenomenon doesn't appear to be tailing off; remittances in December grew to $4.76 billion, 30.4% more than in the same month of 2020.

Remittances as a percentage of Mexico’s GDP have almost doubled over the past decade, growing from 2% of GDP in 2010 to 3.8% in 2020, according to the government. Between 2010 and 2020, the percentage of households in Mexico receiving remittances grew from 3.6% to 5.1%.