Last night you heard IDB country representative Hugo Souza talk about how much money his bank has loaned to Belize.
The figure amounted to around US $95 million. But according to a new study all that is chum change to the estimated $38 billion that Caribbean and Latin American workers, including Belizeans who are abroad send home. The figure was released by the IDB who says that as immigrants get higher paying jobs in industrialized countries like the U.S. and Canada, they were more able to support their relatives back home.
There is no figure for the amount of money Belizeans send home but if it is indication, Jamaicans living abroad send home $1.425 billion dollars a year. El Salvador and Haiti also rank at the top of the list.
The IDB report also note that the money sent home or remittances, as it is known exceed foreign investments in most countries. The report also called on banks and other institutions to reduce transfer costs to make it cheaper for money to reach home.