Remesas

El Fondo Multilateral de Inversiones (FOMIN) del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) y el Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola, organismo especializado de las Naciones Unidas (FIDA), en asociación con la Comisión Europea (CE), el Grupo Consultivo de Ayuda a la Población Pobre (CGAP), el Gobierno de Luxemburgo, el Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación del Gobierno de España (MAE), el Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo de la Capitalización (FNUDC), y en colaboración con el Banco Africano de Desarrollo (BAD), se complacen en anunciar la:

CONVOCATORIA DE PROPUESTAS 2009

Promoción de sistemas de remesas y canales de inversión innovadores para los migrantes

MEDELLÍN, Colombia – The Inter-American Development Bank and Fundación Telefónica today presented a report on mobile communications and access to financial services in Latin America.

The report analyses the level of development of mobile technologies and financial services in eight countries in the region, and is the result of a dialogue with leaders from the public and private sectors, carried out through a series of workshops organized by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank and Fundación Telefónica.

“The new report provides a valuable and timely contribution. It presents a vision of the opportunities and specific challenges that the region faces in improving access to financial services and the way in which mobile technologies can become an answer to such challenges,”said Julie Katzman, manager of the MIF.

Fourth quarter of 2008 registers first decline in nearly a decade. Flows of money sent home by migrants hit by economic slowdown, exchange rate swings

After almost a decade of growth, remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean are likely to decline in 2009 for the first time since the Inter-American Development Bank started tracking these flows in the year 2000. Remittances have been decreasing since late 2008.

The money sent home by migrant workers is a key source of income for millions of families across this region. Last year Latin American and Caribbean expatriates transferred some $69.2 billion to their homelands, 0.9 percent more than in 2007, according to the IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF).

The break in the upward trend took place after the first semester of 2008. After a flat third quarter, in the fourth quarter remittances dropped to $17 billion, 2 percent less than in the same period of 2007. For the few countries that have reported data for January, totals were down by as much as 13 percent.

“While it is too early to project by how much remittances may decline in 2009, this is bad news for millions of people in our region who depend on these flows to make ends meet,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno.