MEXICO CITY (AP) — The money that Mexican migrants send home to their relatives grew by 13.4% in 2022, totaling about $58.5 billion for the year as a whole, Mexico’s central bank said Wednesday.

While that is a record amount for migrant remittances to Mexico, it represents a slowing of growth. In 2021, remittances grew by an astounding 27.1%, totaling about $51.6 billion for the year.

Observers say the lower rate of increase may be due to slower economic growth in the United States — where most Mexican migrants work — and higher inflation and a stronger Mexican peso.

Remittances now surpass almost all other sources of the country’s foreign income, including tourism, oil exports and most manufacturing exports.

Mexico receives more money from remittances than any other country except India. Indian migrants send home about $100 billion each year. China’s share of remittances was affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Still, no one is getting rich in Mexico from remittances; the average amount each migrant sent was $391, according to the Bank of Mexico.

BBVA Research said in a report that remittances sent to Mexico have grown for 31 straight months, a run that started in May 2020, around the time the pandemic began hitting in Mexico.

The bank said “in 2023, it is estimated that remittances will continue to grow, but at a slower rate, due to a possible scenario of slower world economic growth.”

Remittances as a percentage of Mexico’s GDP have almost doubled over the past decade, growing from 2% of GDP in 2010 to 3.8% in 2020, according to the government. Between 2010 and 2020, the percentage of households in Mexico receiving remittances rose from 3.6% to 5.1%.

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