From the Newsroom
São Paulo – Of the 2.5 million Brazilians living abroad, over 1.3 million regularly send their families money, totaling US$ 5.4 billion yearly. The information was provided by the press department for the Brazilian state-owned bank, Caixa Econômica Federal (CEF), and is based on a study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
According to the IDB, Brazil is the second largest market in Latin America, in dispatching money, second only to Mexico. The study also shows the greatest part of remittances come from the USA and Japan.
Each year, Brazilian residents in the two countries send home US$ 2 billion. Money coming from Brazilians living in Europe is over US$ 1 billion and dispatches from other regions of the world add up to around US$ 100 million.
According to a CEF spokesperson, each Brazilian makes an average of 9.7 money transfers to Brazil a year. The average value of each one is US$ 428, states the IDB study.
The mean value of deposits originating in the United States and Western Europe is about US$ 3,000 per year. Transfers from Japan are of higher value: US$ 10,000 a year.
According to the data collected by the IDB, the South and Southeastern regions in Brazil receive most of the resources coming from foreign countries, especially the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina.
The majority of beneficiaries (65%) are women under 35 years of age, 21% of which have a college degree, and 79% of which only have high school diplomas and are, in general, sisters, wives or daughters of those sending money.
