Personal remittances grew 5.2% to $12.6 billion from January to May: central bank  

July 17, 2017

Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos amounted to $12.6 billion, growing 5.2 percent year-on-year from January to May, central bank governor Nestor Espenilla said in a statement on Monday. Personal remittances from land-based workers with contracts of one year or more grew 5.9 percent to make up for the 0.6 percent decline in remittances from sea-based and land-based workers with contracts of less than one year on a year-on-year basis. Cash remittances from overseas Filipinos sent through banks grew 5.3 percent to$2.3 billion in May. This was boosted by remittances from land-based ($1.8 billion) and sea-based ($500 million) workers representing 6.2 percent and three percent increase, the central bank added. By country source, primary contributors to the growth in cash remittances for May are the United Arab Emirates (1.5 percent contribution), Canada and Saudi Arabia each contributing 1.1 percentage points) and United States (0.8 percentage points). On a year-to-date basis, cash remittances grew 4.5 percent, reaching $11.3 billion. Cash remittances from land based workers grew by 5.9 percent to $9 billion while transfers from sea-based workers declined by 0.6 percent to $2.3 billion. Cash remittances coming from the US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom, Qatar, Kuwait, Canada and Germany comprised about 80 percent of total cash remittances from January to May. DMS