Remittances creeping up as Jamaica's top foreign exchange earner

Thursday, October 9, 2003

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Jamaica's leading foreign exchange earner is still tourism but only barely. Money transfers sent home from overseas nationals to relatives in Jamaica is now the second highest foreign exchange earner, totaling US$1.15 billion, according to the Jamaica Gleaner. 

Tourism earnings totalled US$1.18 billion. From January through March this year, remittances totaled approximately US$302 million. Tourism earnings for the same period amounted to US$332.3 million. 

Remittance is also expected to grow by as much as 25 per cent by the end of this year, the Gleaner quoted industry experts as saying. 

"When compared with tourism earnings, the growth rate of remittance inflows is much more impressive," one source, who chose not to be identified, told the paper. "Remittances have played a part in the Jamaican economy for decades but this is now more obvious than ever before, because the local economy is not thriving." 

He said 70 per cent of Jamaican migrants to the United States reside in the New York tri-state area, and are the most frequent users of remittance services compared with Jamaicans residing in other parts of the U.S. 

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