Remittances provide a palliative for Nicaragua's crisis

While everything else seems to be going awry with the Nicaraguan economy, the nation's emigrants a prodding some relief in the form of a 9 percent increase in remittances in the first half of the year. They sent $725 million, some $66 million more than in the same period of last year.

Of the total, 55.7 percent of the remittances came from the United States, followed by Costa Rica with 19.5 percent and 10.9 percent from Spain.