From Today's Inside Costa Rica (Nov 7, 2007). Do we Gringos inflate the CR economy by this much?
Ticos To Receive us$600 Million Dollars in Remittances This Year
Some 300.000 Costa Ricans are expected to receive us$600 million dollars this year from family living and working a abroad, according to the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) in its report released yesterday.
The BID calculates that each adult receives on average us$250 eight times a year for a total of us$2.000.
The BID made released the figures at the FELABAN Annual Assembly, the largest gathering of senior Latin American bankers outside the IMF. FELABAN - is a nonprofit organization constituted in 1965 in the city of Mar del Plata, Republic of Argentina. Through its members - Banking Associations and other Organizations in 19 countries of the continent - it is integrated by more than 600 Latin American financial institutions.
The BID gathered the information by a poll of 3.403 adults between 16 July 07 and 04 September 07.
According to the development bank, during the first half of the year, Costa Ricans received us$263 million dollars in remittances and us$519 in the past 12 months.
For Costa Rica, remittances are becoming an increasing important source of money. However, compared to other countries, Costa Rica receives only 5% of the total amount of remittances for 2007 that is estimated at us12.1 billion dollars.
The lower number, according to the BID, is not a bad thing, it means that Costa Ricans do not leave the country to work abroad as they are able to find work in the country, unlike in some other countries, like Nicaragua.
According to the BID poll,
71% of remittances received in Costa Rica come from the United States, 13% from Europe, 12% from Latin America and 3% from Canada.