Personal remittances higher by 4.4% in Jan-May: BSP

July 16, 2018

Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos  reached $2.7 billion in May , some 6.1 percent higher than the level posted a year ago.

On a cumulative basis, personal remittances from January to May grew by 4.4 percent year-on-year to reach $13.2 billion, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor Espenilla, Jr. announced Monday

Personal remittances during the period was driven by steady inflows from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which totaled to $10.2 billion, and compensation of  sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts, which reached  $2.7 billion.

Similarly, cash remittances from overseas Filipinos coursed through banks rose by 6.9 percent year-on-year to $2.5 billion in May.

In particular, cash remittances sent by land-based workers ($1.9 billion) and sea-based workers ($0.5 billion) grew by 5.3 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively.

Of the 6.9 percent growth in May, 2.6, 1.6 and 1.3 percentage points were contributed by the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Singapore, respectively, the main drivers of the growth in cash remittances.

On a year-to-date basis, cash remittances registered a 4.2 percent increase to reach $11.8 billion. Cash remittances coming from the US, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), UK, Japan, Qatar, Hong Kong, Germany and Kuwait accounted for about 78 percent of total cash remittances.  DMS