Money sent home to Mexico by migrants surpasses foreign investment, tourism

[MORTARDUDE]

Money sent home to Mexico by migrants surpasses foreign investment, tourism

Friday, August 29, 2003

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(08-29) 18:43 PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) --

Mexican migrant workers sent more money to their home country than either foreign investors or tourists this year, according to central bank figures released this week.

Since the central Bank of Mexico's current recording format began in 1980, remittances have never before exceeded both tourism and foreign investment over a six-month period.

Remittances began to gradually outstrip tourism starting in 1998, although some recorded "tourism" is actually Mexicans bringing rather than sending money to family members.

This year, recorded remittances jumped 29 percent in the first half of 2003 to $6.3 billion, outstripping the $5.2 billion sent in direct foreign investment.

That's second only to income from oil exports, at more than $8 billion, and well ahead of tourism at $4.9 billion.

Although part of the surge was attributed to higher migration rates, better monitoring and a campaign to make money transfers cheaper and safer also resulted in more money being tracked as it crossed the border. The use of money orders increased by 104 percent in the first half of 2003 over the same period of 2002, while hard-to-count cash transfers dropped by 28.6 percent.