• RECORD: Migrant remittances to Mexico reached a monthly record high in March of US $4.16 billion, defying analysts’ expectations amid the coronavirus crisis, according to Mexico’s central bank data. The figure is the highest in history and is fueled in part by a depreciation of the Mexican peso.
• COUNTERINTUITIVE: Despite the employment crisis and tougher immigration controls in the US year, last year’s remittances from Mexicans abroad recorded a historic annual high of US $36 billion. The value of remittances for the first three months of 2020 reached US $9.29 billion.
• POWER: “The high flow of remittances in March, with a much higher exchange rate and a moderate inflation rate, took the annual flow of remittances…in real pesos (purchasing power) to a new historical peak”, Jonathan Heath, deputy governor at the Bank of Mexico, said on Twitter.
• FORECAST: In April, analysts at BBVA financial group said that remittances to Mexico could fall by 17% this year, given the economic downturn from the coronavirus shock. Still, they have warned that a definitive forecast depended on which sectors in the US result most affected by the downturn.
