Robust remittances

 

Healthy growth in remittances is good news for the hard-pressed economies of Central America’s “Northern Triangle”.

In the first four months of this year, remittances to both Guatemala and Honduras were 10 percent up compared to the same period of last year, while growth in El Salvador was 2 percent in the first quarter.

Remittances are a mainstay of the economy of each the three countries, and an important factor in Mexico, Colombia and Nicaragua.

In Honduras, emigrants last year sent $3.1 billion to their families, a 12.5 percent increase over 2013.

For El Salvador, the figure was almost $4 billion, a 6.7% rise, while Guatemala had an increase of 3.5 percent to $5.1 billion.

Most emigrants from Central America and Mexico are based in the United States, where the economy has been growing steadily.

By contrast, remittances to countries fell sharply last year in Colombia and Ecuador, whose emigrants are based mainly in the troubled economies of southern Europe.