Cash transfers from Mexicans overseas rise sharply

Remittances to Mexico from its citizens overseas -- mostly in theUS -- rose a brisk 16 percent in March, the central bank said Friday, the biggestincrease in two-and-a-half years.The numbers are seen as another sign of an improving US economy, since itsuggests Mexicans living -- illegally and legally -- in the United States are findingemployment more easily, and that their jobs pay enough to allow them to sendmoney back home.Mexicans wired $2.0 billion home in March, compared to $1.7 billion in the samemonth a year earlier.Mexico's central bank said it was the eighth consecutive monthly rise in moneytransfers, and the biggest jump in remittances since September 2011.Remittances are the third most important source of income for Mexico, after oil andtourism.