RemittancesGateway.org

Remittances to El Salvador Rise 8.7% in March

Wednesday, 14 April 2010 15:28

Source: Latin American Herald Tribune

Remittances sent by Salvadorans living abroad – mostly in the United States – rose 8.7 percent in March, compared to the same month in 2009, to $343.2 million, El Salvador’s Central Bank reported.

“This is first positive rate observed since October 2008,” the Central Bank said.

Remittances last month were $27.2 million higher than in March 2009.

The increase in remittances was the result of the “positive influence of Holy Week,” the Central Bank said.

Remittances totaled $848.4 million in the January-March period, up 0.60 percent from the first quarter of 2009, “confirming the improving tendency,” the Central Bank’s economic research and statistics department said.

Some 240,000 illegal Salvadoran immigrants are allowed to live and work in the United States under Temporary Protected Status, first extended after El Salvador was devastated by earthquakes in January and February 2001, and renewed multiple times since then.

Remittances from the estimated 2.5 million Salvadorans residing in the United States constitute their homeland’s biggest single source of income, accounting for up to 17 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in some recent years.

Salvadorans living in the United States account for some 90 percent of all remittances sent to the Central American nation, according to official figures.