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Mexico sees 20% jump in money sent back home
The Associated Press
May 9, 2005

MEXICO CITY - Mexicans living abroad sent more than $4 billion home in the first quarter of 2005, a 20 percent increase over the same period a year before, the Bank of Mexico said.
The largest sum of money was sent to western Michoacan state, where residents received $546.2 million in the first three months of the year, according to figures posted in recent days on the Bank of Mexico's Web page.

The remittances are Mexico's second-largest source of foreign income after oil.

Last year, Mexicans sent home $16.6 billion, 24 percent more than in 2003.

Officials believe remittances have been increasing in part because it has become cheaper and easier to send money home.

Of the nearly 11 million people born in Mexico who live abroad, 98 percent are in the U.S.