Drastic drop in remittances expected for Yucatán and the rest of Mexico

Merida, Yucatan (April 10, 2020) .- After the months of January and February 2020 meant record figures for the country in terms of remittances from the United States, with an estimated 6.2 billion US dollars coming into Mexico, the Bank of Mexico forecast is that in the second half of this year, the volume will be reduced by up to 40% affecting millions of Mexican families

The Bank of Mexico data establish that the first two months of 2020 were very high, with record figures of 2.5 billion in January and 2.6 billion US dollars in February.

However, the economic situation in the neighboring northern country has been aggravated by the health contingency, to the extent that some 21 million people have signed up for unemployment programs in that nation.

The figures establish that Yucatan maintained the average rate of foreign exchange reception with close to 18.2 million dollars per month this year.

Yucatecan community in the United States(Photo: Reporteros Hoy)

Meanwhile, the forecasts and estimates that the agency has registered, indicate that in the second half of the year, these figures could be reduced by up to 40 percent.

According to figures issued by the Institute for the Development of Maya Culture, an entity of the state government, in 2019, the remittances from the United States totaled 219 million dollars, a resource that is distributed in nearly 46 municipalities and that benefits some 27 thousand families.

It was expected that this year the economic boom of the almost 200,000 Yucatecans residing in the USA would continue to generate an increase in the flow of resources that is distributed in the municipalities, primarily in the central, southern and eastern areas of the state.

At the time, the director of Indemaya, Eric Villanueva Mukul said that the expectations for this year were encouraging to increase the capacity of resources and productive projects that families carry out with these remittances from abroad.

However, the health contingency that started in China in January, has crossed borders, and has turned the condition of millions of people in this country into a serious and precarious situation.

People have lost their jobs due to the economic situation and of course to the closure of sources of employment, as we ll know, the most important economic sectors in the United States are paralyzed.