EMPLOYMENT | Downturn continues in manufacturing. Employment in Mexico's manufacturing sector in August was down 4.3% year-on-year, which left the decline for the first eight months at 3.6%. All branches of manufacturing registered job losses. Worst of all were metal products (-9.1%), textiles & apparel (-6.9%) and wood products (-5.5%).
In the maquila (assembly) sector, most closely linked to the US economy, employment in August was down 4% in the year, taking the eight-month total down 0.3%. Worst declines: footwear & leather (-26.1%), toys & sport goods (-17.9%), textiles (-14.2%).
REMITTANCES | Year's total to exceed forecast. Remittances from Mexican expatriates, mostly in the US, will this year reach US$14.5bn, or US$1.5bn more than the Banco de México forecast. The prediction comes in a report which notes than about 18% of Mexico's adult population, some 11m people, receive remittances from relatives working abroad -- and that there is practically no town in Mexico where someone is not a recipient. The data was presented at a forum organised by the IDB's Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF).
In the first nine months of this year remittances have totalled US$9bn, not far below the US$9.8bn registered for the whole of 2002. The report ventures that within five years remittances could reach an annual US$20bn. One of the factors encouraging this projection is the imminent lowering of remittance costs which will accompany the introduction of the ACH automatic transfer system, and the development of Bansefi's `popular banking' network.
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