Mexico City, (November 17, 2021).- Mexican companies and citizens have sent 27.7 billion US dollars to bank accounts in the United States since the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador began; a trend that accelerated the first year of the crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic and that is maintained until the most recent data published by the Federal Reserve (Fed).
Although the deposits of Mexicans in accounts in the United States have increased from the beginning of 2019 until August of the current year, the amount of said increase represents a quarter of the 108 thousand 708 million dollars of remittances that, practically in the same period, nationals who work in that country have sent to Mexico.
According to the Fed, the total deposits that the private banks of that country have received from the beginning of 2019 until recent August increased 24.1 percent, below the 38.3 percent that did exclusively those of companies and citizens of Mexico.
At the end of 2018, the López Obrador administration began, the savings of Mexicans deposited in the United States amounted to 72.530 million dollars. At the end of last year and after the dustbin that the coronavirus pandemic raised in international markets, these resources already amounted to 81.901 million dollars. In other words, in a two-year period, they grew 12.9 percent.
However, it is in 2021 when those savings accounts inflate the fastest. At the August cutoff, there were $ 100.28 billion in them – practically the equivalent of Petróleos Mexicanos’ debt and still less than the balance of remittances already referred to in the September cutoff -, an increase of 22.4 percent in just eight months.
Financial analysts explained that there are several factors that influence this transfer of capital to the United States. The first, and which is a reality worldwide, is the coronavirus crisis and its wake of damage. Janeth Quiroz, director of economic analysis at Monex, explained that given the “strong uncertainty” that characterizes this situation, there is a tendency to remove financial investments from emerging countries.
Given the high volatility in international markets, the obvious destination is the United States, since bringing money to the world’s largest economy implies less risk. In addition, in the midst of the crisis, the stock markets of that country have had several historical highs, he detailed.
Fear of a reform that could lead to a seizure of their assets
To this conjuncture, factors are added others more of “structure”, detailed James Salazar, director of economic analysis of CIBanco. For a sector of Mexicans, it is a daily thing to save their savings in several countries, it is thought that “perhaps it is safer.”
Added to this is the fact that inflation in the United States used to be much lower than in Mexico –in October they equaled 6.2 percent per year–, which implies that savings erode less. But beyond those almost traditional factors that weigh on certain groups, now “there is an additional element of internal uncertainty,” he explained.
For example, in 2018 when there were certain doubts after the electoral victory of López Obrador, many decided to get their money, the analyst recalled. Now the electricity sector reform proposal can also generate “certain fears among investors and (that they) decide to go to banks in the United States.”
Both economists assure that this trend will become stronger when the Fed increases its interest rate.
Source: La Jornada
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