Mexico City. Mexican citizens and businesses transferred $ 21.88 billion to bank accounts in the United States in the first two years of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration, information from the Federal Reserve (Fed), the US central bank, revealed.
Since the current administration began in December 2018, Mexican accounts with US banks have become the largest in Latin American countries, according to Fed reports.
In November 2020, Mexicans’ accounts in that country totaled $ 93,000 to $ 618 million, according to figures updated by the Fed at the end of January. The amount was 29 percent higher than that reported in December 2018, which was $ 72.53 billion. This represented an increase in the period of 21 thousand 88 million.
By comparison, the amount of Mexican deposits in US banks equals 84 percent of the federal government’s foreign debt balance, which was $ 111,000 at $ 62.3 million last December, according to the Treasury Department.
The money route
The $ 21,000 $ 88 million in which Mexican deposits have grown over the past two years is equivalent to just over half of the remittances to Mexico in 2020, which amounted to $ 40,000, and far exceeds the value of the oil and agricultural exports that lasted for the past few years. years were 17 thousand 413 million and 18 thousand 682 million dollars respectively.
The amount reached by Mexican deposits in US banks last November is the second highest since there has been a record, according to Fed data, surpassed only by the amounts reported in April 2020, when they reached $ 96.407 billion. amounted to. So, in the past year, you can find the two months that the two largest money balances from Mexico were transferred to that country.
In the first year of the current government, there was a small decrease in Mexican resources. At the end of 2019, deposits totaled $ 71,878 million, an amount that is 652 million lower than the amount recorded in December 2018, according to data from the Fed.
Since then, the balance of Mexican bills has generally continued to rise, according to official information.
In January 2020, the amount of deposits was 76 thousand $ 166 million, an amount 4 thousand 288 million higher than reported a month earlier, according to information from the Fed. It rose to 96 thousand 407 million in April, the first month. from incarceration to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and when the Mexican private sector asked for government support to ease the shutdown of the activity.
In May last year, deposits fell to $ 93.98 billion, a similar amount to November last year, according to data from the Fed.
In Mexico, the reference interest rate fluctuated between 7 percent last year, at the beginning of the period, and 4.25 percent in December. In the United States, it remained at 0.25 percent throughout the year.
The champions of the region
Among Hispanic citizens and businesses, those of Mexican descent are at the forefront of most of their bank accounts in the United States.
Latin Americans’ total deposits – excluding the Caribbean – were $ 268 thousand $ 586 million in November, 16.6 percent more than December 2019, when they were 230 thousand 258 million, and 16.1 percent higher than the close of 2018, which made 231 thousand $ 251 million.
For example, up until November last year, Mexicans owned just over a quarter, 26.8 percent, of all Latin American deposits, according to Fed data.
The second group of Latin Americans with the highest amount of deposits in US banks is that of Brazilian citizens – an economy larger than Mexico – with $ 32,000 at $ 339 million last November, an amount equivalent to just over a third of what Mexicans have done that, according to information from the Fed.
The list includes the residents of Chile, with 27 thousand $ 42 million; Panama, with 23 thousand 821 million; Uruguay, with $ 20,279 million, and Argentina, with $ 16,000, $ 943 million, are among the most relevant and, in all cases, with Fed figures updated as of November last year.