Mexican’s abroad sent home $11.4 billion in remittances during the first six months of this year, up 23.1% on a year ago according to the country’s central bank. There were 37.8 million transactions over the period, with an average value of $351. Mexicans working in the US are responsible for the vast majority of the remittances.
Mexico is one of six Latin American countries receiving over $2.5 billion in remittances a year. The others are Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.
India needs $330 billion of investment in infrastructure projects over the next five years, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry. The level of investment needs to increase from 4.6% to 8% in order to maintain average annual GDP growth of 8%. The Indian government plans to spend around $47 billion on infrastructure projects during this financial year.
The Korea Development Institute said South Korea is likely to see a moderation in its growth rate this year. The government is targeting a growth rate of 5% for 2006, but may be unable to achieve this because of a lower-than-expected recovery in domestic consumption and a slump in the construction sector.
Czech consumer inflation accelerated to 2.9% year-on-year in July, up from 2.8 % in June, the Czech Statistical Office said today. Most analysts expect price growth to reach 3%. Growth was pulled by food prices, which rose 2.4% during July. Czech stores raised prices 0.4% to make up for declining tourist numbers as tour prices rose sharply last month. Inflation in the Czech Republic remains above the EU average, which was 2.4% in June.