Remittances represent more than 10% of GDP in several states of the country

Remittances represent more than 10 percent of the gross domestic product of some states of Mexico, especially those whose economies are most vulnerable and that register high rates of migration. That is, in these entities, 10 of every 100 pesos generated are related to transfers from Mexicans abroad, reveal official data compiled by the Latin American Remittances Forum.

According to figures from the World Bank, Mexico is the second largest recipient of remittances in the world, after India and followed by China and the Philippines. That country’s income amounted to 63,319 million dollars in 2023 and 64,493 million dollars in the last 12 months until October.

However, explained Jesús A. Cervantes González, coordinator of the forum, which belongs to the Center for Latin American Studies (Cela), compared to other countries, Mexico’s income from remittances is relatively small in relation to the size of the economy.

The above, considering that in 2023 remittances were equivalent to 3.5 percentage points of the gross domestic product, a figure lower than that observed in most of the main remittance receiving countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, given that, for example, in Honduras represents 26.9 percent of its economy; in Nicaragua, 26.1 percent; in El Salvador, 24; in Jamaica, 19.8; in Guatemala, 19, and in Haiti, 16.3 percent.

However, data from the Bank of Mexico and the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), compiled by the Remittance Forum, reveal that in the country there are states with a high dependence on these transfers, as is the case of Chiapas, where they represent 15.6 percent of its GDP, or Guerrero, where they are equivalent to 13.8 percent of the economy.

Both entities are not only among the most marginalized in the country, but also two of those that expel the most migrants each year.

According to the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval), the municipalities with the highest percentage of population in poverty were located in the entities of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero. In contrast to this, those with the lowest percentage were located in Nuevo León, Mexico City, Sonora, Chihuahua and Coahuila.

However, Chiapas is the poorest state in Mexico, because it is the entity with the highest percentage of people in this situation, with 75 percent.

Meanwhile, according to BBVA data, the federal entities with the highest migratory intensity are Zacatecas, Michoacán, Nayarit, Guanajuato, San Luis, Aguascalientes, Oaxaca, Durango, Guerrero, Hidalgo and Colima.

Chiapas does not stand out on this list; However, in recent years it has become a point where migrants from Central and South America arrive, and then seek to reach the United States, a situation that led said entity to be among the five states that receive the most remittances.

In the case of Mexico, remittances represent a moderate percentage in relation to the size of the economy, but they reach very high percentages with respect to the GDP of some of the country’s states and particularly those with lower levels of per capita product.said Cervantes González.