MEXICO CITY, Mexico: Mexico’s central bank said last week that in 2021 the money Mexican migrants sent home to relatives totaled a record $51.6 billion for the year, a rise of 27.1 percent, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The remittances surpassed almost all other sources of the country’s foreign income, including tourism, oil exports and most manufacturing exports. The central bank said the high level of remittances will continue.

Remittances in December grew to $4.76 billion, 30.4 percent more than in the same month of 2020.

According to the government, as a percentage of Mexico’s GDP remittances have almost doubled over the past decade, growing from 2 percent of GDP in 2010 to 3.8 percent in 2020. Between 2010 and 2020, the percentage of Mexican households receiving remittances rose from 3.6 percent to 5.1 percent.

A government report added that Mexico now accounts for about 6.1 percent of world remittances, the third largest receiver in the world, behind only India and China.

The surge in remittances could have been caused, in part, by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to officials.

Mexico’s GDP shrank 8.5 percent in 2020, and while the economy rebounded 5 percent in 2021, the last two quarters of the year showed a slight contraction, meaning it is in a technical recession, which could encouraged migrants to send more money to their families at home.

“When a Mexican family suffers illness or their household suffers damage, they receive more. Why? Because, basically, they ask for help,” said Agustin Escobar, professor at Mexico’s Center for Research and Higher Education in Social Anthropology, as quoted by the Associated Press.

Part of that growth may also have been fueled by strong labor markets and job opportunities for migrants in the U.S.

“Throughout 2021, there has been a drop in unemployment rates among Mexicans living in the U.S., which improved their economic conditions and their ability to send remittances to relatives in Mexico,” Mexico’s BBVA Research said in a report.