Economists Baffled by How Mexicans Can Send So Much Money Home
(Bloomberg) -- Remittances to Mexico surged in May, confounding the majority of economists who expected the weakest U.S. jobs market in decades to take a heavier toll on migrant workers.
Money sent home by Mexicans abroad increased almost 3% from a year earlier, to $3.4 billion, the central bank said on its website Wednesday. Economists were forecasting a year-on-year decline, to $3 billion, according to a Bloomberg survey.
“Some of the subsidies that the U.S. government sent people were probably sent on to families abroad,” said Ricardo Aguilar, chief economist for INVEX brokerage in Mexico City, and the only analyst surveyed by Bloomberg who predicted an increase. “At the same time, the jobs market started to reactivate, and North American industry employs a lot of immigrants.”
Read More: Mexican Government Policies to Continue Hurting Growth
Mexican remittances in the first five months of the year jumped more than 10% compared to 2019, to $15.5 billion. A weaker peso, after a 17% depreciation during 2020, means each dollar goes further for a family back home in Mexico.
The average remittance transaction amounted to $319 in May compared to $322 a year ago, the central bank said.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
