Mexicans will receive an estimated $14.5 billion this year from countrymen working in the United States, a figure that rivals the nation's most important sources of foreign income, according to a study released Monday.

The amount is also about 20 per cent more than projections by Mexico's central bank, which said such remittances will hit about $12 billion by the end of the year.

The study by the Inter-American Development Bank and Pew Hispanic Center found that official estimates overlook money shipped home by mail or carried home in cash by migrants and messengers. Study authors said they were able to determine these funds as well by surveying thousands of Mexicans.

Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, said money sent by Mexicans working abroad — both legally and illegally, mainly in the United States — to mainly relatives back home had become an economic "fuel pump" for Mexico.

Officials said it has become the country's second-largest source of foreign income after oil sales, expected to hit nearly $17 billion this year. And for the first time, such remittances have exceeded income from both foreign investments and tourism.

Suro said that the study also indicated that a low-growth U.S. economy and new security measures along the U.S. border have not significantly slowed the growth of remittances.

The remittance study was based on a survey of 3,263 adults carried out in Mexico during September and October as well as discussions with three focus groups held in Mexico City, Puebla and San Luis Potosi. The survey, conducted by Bendixen & Associates of Miami, had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

It found that 18 per cent of Mexico's population currently receives regular income from abroad.

"For a big country, it's enormous," said Donald Terry of the Inter-American Development Bank, which tracks remittances worldwide. India receives more money from its relatives living abroad, but the impact of remittances on Mexico is much greater, he said.

"Mexico is without question the No. 1 remittance market in the world," Terry said.

Sergio Bendixen, who implemented the survey, said people receiving money from abroad come from all sectors of society.

"This study forcefully indicates that remittances now affect all of Mexican society — every level economically, every level of education and in every region," Suro said.

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