Remittances to Jamaica fall as other countries grow
The central bank in its newest remittance report says that for the January to September 2022 period, remittance inflows to Jamaica amounted to US$2,554.9 million, which represented a decline of 1.9 per cent.
Guatemala, on the other hand, registered a growth rate of 23.9 per cent. At the same time, Mexico registered growth of 15.2 per cent while El Salvador registered growth of 3.7 per cent for the period.
For September 2022, net remittance inflows of US$270.9 million showed a declined of 4.2 per cent or US$ 11.8 million in comparison to September of 2021. This came out of a decline in total remittance inflows of US$16.3 million, partly offset by a reduction of US$4.4 million or 20.5 per cent in total remittance outflows.
The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) indicates that the decline in gross remittance inflows largely reflected a fall of 4.9 per cent in inflows via remittance companies further aided by a decline in inflows via the other remittances channel of 8.1 per cent for the month of September.
The decline in remittance inflows, the BOJ said, was partly due to increased cash in hand remittances as travel recovers.
Remittance by markets
Meanwhile, the largest source market of remittance flows to Jamaica for September 2022 continued to be the USA. Remittances from the US accounted for 70.9 per cent of total flows, up from 69.7 per cent recorded for September 2021.
Other source countries which contributed a notable share of remittances for the month were Canada at 11.4 per cent, followed by the UK and the Cayman Islands at 8.6 per cent and 5.5 per cent, respectively.