Photo: MARVIN RECINOS / AFP via Getty Images) / AFP / Getty Images
Everything seems to indicate that this year Colombians in the United States will send around $ 8, 000 million dollars in remittances to their relatives in their native land.
These estimates come from the statistics already available for the first semester of this 2021. A total of $ 3, 798 million dollars were the money orders sent to Colombia from abroad, for this reason it is believed that at the end of the year this figure could double.
The monthly report of Banco República points out that remittances in these first six months of the year increased by 29. 41% more than in the same period of 2020, when the total amount for that period was $ 3, 080 millions of dollars.
The figures indicate that Only last month, June, Colombia received from abroad $ 654 million dollars in remittances , that is a 24. 6 percent more than the same month during the previous year. However, March 2021 was a great month for remittances sent.
In March, probably as economic aid to US residents had already begun, and it is from there that the highest volume of remittances to Colombia comes from, the registered number of remittances was historic reaching $ 789 million dollars in that month.
Only from the United States, in the first quarter of the year, Colombia received $ 1, 000 millions of dollars in money transfers. And the second quarter of the year doubled that figure, reaching $ 2, 050 million dollars.
Upon reaching this figure of $ 8, 000 million annual dollars would register a new record in remittances for the sixth consecutive and uninterrupted time since of the year 2016.
In 2020, the total number of remittances that arrived in Colombia from the United States was $ 3, 572 millions of dollars. And it is that approximately 50% of the migrant population of Colombia lives in States States.
In general, the amount of remittances sent by Latino migrants to their countries of origin since the start of the pandemic managed to prevent the economic crisis from being so noticeable in that region of Latin America; so the World Bank economist and also an expert on remittances and migration, Dilip Ratha.
“It seems there has been no crisis,” said the financial expert to qualify as “amazing” the amount of money sent by Latinos to their countries of origin in 2020.
It is demonstrated by statistics that migrant workers in times of crisis save more and they send more money to their families. It is estimated that for Latin America, so remittances will continue to increase this year and the next, the outlook regarding the sending of money is very positive, there is talk of an increase of almost 5% for this year and next.
The World Bank has recommended that work should continue to increase remittances and therefore recommends that transaction fees should be lower. The Sustainable Development Agenda for the 2030 has set a goal of 3.0% of commissions, currently the average is 6.5%, still a lot for Modify.