Remittances from Mexican workers in the United States totalled USD $24.77 billion in 2015, which meant they exceeded by 33 percent the value of Mexican oil exports, it was reported Wednesday Feb. 3.
According to a report from the Bank of Mexico, remittances received during 2015 were superior to 2014, with a growth of 4.75 percent.
The contributions of remittances led by 33 percent the revenues from exports of crude oil from PEMEX, which, according to Pemex, were of USD $18.524 billion in 2015.
“There is an advance in the recovery of the U.S. economy that has a very high correlation to jobs available for immigrants, and that has a very important impact on the amount of money they send to Mexico,” said Alfredo Coutino, Latin America director for Moody’s Analytics.
Mexican agricultural workers cultivate romaine lettuce on a farm in Holtville, CA (Photo: cnbc)
Alejandro Cervantes, an economist with Grupo Financiero Banorte, said remittances’ rise over oil reflects an economy that has diversified since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994.
“Before NAFTA the flow of petroleum exports represented nearly 80 percent of the total dollar income for the Mexican economy,” Cervantes said, noting that today it is less than 20 percent. “The lesson is that the Mexican economy, on the whole, is no longer so dependent on oil.”
Manufacturing exports are currently Mexico’s No. 1 source of foreign income.
Sources:
