The first month of 2025 turned out to be the first monthly income below US$ 5 billion in 10 months. It is not clear whether it already incorporates the impact of the tightening of immigration policies, analysts say.
Mexican workers displaced abroad sent remittances worth 4.66 billion dollars to their homes of origin during January, reported the Bank of Mexico (Banxico).
This inflow of foreign currency showed an increase of 1.9% compared to the flow received in the same month of the previous year, when the receiving families received 4.573 billion dollars, but it shows a new fall in sequential terms, that is, compared to the monthly flow of December, of 10.8%.
According to statistics from the central bank, in the last month of last year, remittances received by 11.9 million households totaled 5.222 billion dollars.
Analysts at Banorte have explained that January traditionally presents an adverse seasonal pattern that tends to moderate the monthly flow of transfers.
January was the third consecutive month in which there was a slowdown in the inflow of remittances from the 5.73 billion that entered the country in October and was the first monthly inflow of less than 5 billion dollars in 10 months.
Alberto Ramos, economist for Latin America at Goldman Sachs, explained that two elements persist that may encourage expectations that the flow of remittances to Mexico will continue. He refers to a still resilient US labor market as well as the recent depreciation of the Mexican peso, which boosts the consumption of recipients.
However, he added that it is not yet clear whether the tightening of immigration policies will ultimately impact the flow of remittances in the future.
In real terms and converted to Mexican pesos, remittances have accumulated eight consecutive months of growth, said Janneth Quiroz, director of economic, foreign exchange and stock market analysis at Monex.
In this way, the purchasing power of transfers received in the country during January increased 18.4% in annual terms, thanks to the exchange rate depreciation.
