Remittance To The Caribbean, Latin America Grows Despite COVID-19

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C., Weds. May 12, 2021: Remittance flows to Latin America and the Caribbean grew despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank said today.

The report shows that remittance to the region grew an estimated 6.5 percent to $103 billion in 2020. While remittance dropped due to COVID-19 in the second quarter of 2020, it rebounded during the third and fourth quarters, the report said.

Remittance flows increased to countries such as the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Colombia, El Salvador and Honduras, for whom the bulk of remittances originate from migrants working in the United States.

The Dominican Republic received US $8.3 billion in remittances last year while Haiti received US $3.1 billion and Jamaica US $3 billion.

Mexico received almost US $43 billion while Colombia received almost US $7 billion; El Salvador almost US $6 billion and Honduras, US $5.6 billion.

“The resilience of remittance flows is remarkable. Remittances are helping to meet families’ increased need for livelihood support,” said Dilip Ratha, lead author of the report on migration and remittances and head of KNOMAD. “They can no longer be treated as small change. The World Bank has been monitoring migration and remittance flows for nearly two decades, and we are working with governments and partners to produce timely data and make remittance flows even more productive.”

With global growth expected to rebound further in 2021 and 2022, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are expected to increase by 2.6 percent to $553 billion in 2021 and by 2.2 percent to $565 billion in 2022.