Remittances to El Salvador expands

Remittances to El Salvador hit US$465mn in October, according to the central bank, a 8.7% year-on-year increase over the same month in 2017.

Total transfers from January to October came to US$4.50bn, up 9.1% y-o-y, as the nation continued to experience the sustained rise in remittances seen across Mexico and Central America in 2018.

El Salvador saw remittances from 157 nations in the 10-month period, including US$4.20bn from the US, US$42.3mn from the EU and US$39.8mn from Canada, said the central bank.

The bank said transfers from banks handled 40.9% of family remittances from January to October, amounting US$1.84bn with over 6.5mn transactions. Credit unions and other payment companies handled 55.2% for a total of US$2.49bn with 9.8mn operations, while the rest (3.9%) corresponds to mobile phone top-ups and remittances that were transferred in cash.

The overall unemployment rate in the US in October was 3.7%, unchanged from September, while the unemployment rate for Hispanics was 4.4%, down 0.1 percentage points with respect to the previous month.