20091207

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The amount of money sent home by Kenyans abroad fell to $53.04 million in October from $53.35 million the month before and the central bank said on Monday that cumulative remittances had dropped 4 percent this year.

Remittances are the third-biggest source of foreign exchange for east Africa's biggest economy, following agricultural exports and tourism.

Kenyans sent home $504.60 million over January-October compared with $527.14 million over the same period last year, but up from $476.66 million in first 10 months of 2007.

Remittances in 2008 totalled a record $611 million, which the central bank says was as a result of Kenyans in the diaspora responding to cushion relatives against the multiple shocks of drought-induced inflation and post-election violence.

The Central Bank of Kenya said in a statement that remittances from North America and Europe decreased marginally in October, but that the contribution from rest of the world rose by 5.9 percent to $10.8 million.

The central bank says that more than half of remittances have come from North America in each of the past five years. It also studies the inflows to assess the extent of the international economic downturn when formulating policy.