Guatemala: Growth in remittances accelerates in January
Remittances from workers abroad grew 8.0% in January from the same month a year earlier, reaching USD 635 million and accelerating from December’s 6.2% year-on-year expansion.
In the 12 months through January, remittances were stable at December’s cumulative USD 8.2 billion, a joint all-time record. The 12-month cumulative sum of remittances furthermore grew 13.4% in January compared to the same period in the previous year, a slight deceleration from the 14.4% growth rate observed in the full-year 2017.
Remittances, an important source of income for Guatemalan households, account for more than a tenth of the country’s GDP, and the vast majority of receipts originate in the United States. As such, remittances are inextricably tied to U.S. employment trends and the broader health of the U.S. economy. In 2017 and 2018, fresh concerns over the direction of U.S. immigration policy were in part behind the double-digit surge of remittance inflows.