The money Mexican workers send home from the United States is Mexico's top source of foreign income and represents more than twice the value of crude oil exports, according to a new report.
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Forbes story quotes José Alfredo Coutiño, Moody's Director for Latin America, as saying the remittances — which have
come under fire by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump — account for a lot of money in Mexico.
"Remittances surpassed crude oil revenues for the first time in history in December of 2014," Coutiño told Forbes. "Since then, remittances have continued to increase even to the point of representing more than twice the value of crude oil exports since December of 2015."
In the first quarter of 2016, $6.2 billion worth of remittances was sent to Mexico. During that same time frame, Mexico pulled in $2.6 billion in oil exports revenue.
Remittances are on the rise and Mexico's oil exports are decreasing, so the gap between the two is expected to grow larger, reports Forbes. Oil production in America's southern neighbor has fallen by 1.3 million barrels per day since 2003.
In 2015, according to Forbes, remittances to Mexico totaled $24.8 billion, oil exports revenues were $18.7 billion, and tourism was $17.4 billion.
After GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump threatened to cut off remittances as part of his proposal for Mexico to pay for a border wall to be constructed, a senior Mexican official told the
Los Angeles Times the battle against money laundering and other financial crimes would only get harder if Trump gets his way.