Personal remittances grew 10.8% in January: central bank

March 15, 2018

Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos  grew by 10.8 percent year-on-year in January 2018 to reach $2.7 billion, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor  Espenilla, Jr. announced Thursday.

Personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more aggregated $2.1 billion, higher by 8.4 percent than the level recorded in January 2017.

Those from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year rose by 15.3 percent to $0.5 billion.

Cash remittances from overseas Filipinos coursed through banks summed up to $2.4 billion in January, representing a 9.7 percent year-on-year growth.

Remittances from both land-based   ($1.9 billion) and sea-based ($0.5 billion) workers increased by 8.4 percent and 15.3 percent, respectively.

By country source, the bulk of cash remittances came from the United States, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Japan, Qatar, Canada, Kuwait, and Germany.

The combined remittances from these countries accounted for more than 80 percent of total cash remittances.

The US, Canada, Singapore, and UAE were the major contributors to the growth in cash remittances for the month.

Remittances from the United States grew by 14.3 percent, contributing 4.6 percentage points to the 9.7 percent overall growth. Meanwhile, cash remittances from Canada, Singapore and UAE contributed a combined 4.6 percentage points to total growth in cash remittances. DMS