Personal remittances reach $23.b from Jan-Sept: BSP

November 15, 2017

Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos (OFs) reached $23.2 billion for January to September, registering 4.8 percent year-on-year growth, BSP ( Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) Governor Nestor Espenilla, Jr. said Wednesday.

Personal remittances from land-based OFs with work contracts of one year or more including other household-to-household transfers rose by 5.1 percent to $18.4 billion while those from sea-based and land-based OFs with work contracts of less than one year likewise increased by 3.5 percent to $4.8 billion for the same period, the central bank said.

But, personal remittances in September (at $2.3 billion) were 7 percent lower than the level posted in the same month last year.

From January to September, cash remittances from OFs coursed through banks recorded 3.8 percent growth from the level posted in the same period a year ago, reaching $20.8 billion.

Cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers grew by 3.8 percent and 3.5 percent to reach $16.4 billion and $4.4 billion, respectively.

For September alone, total cash remittances fell by 8.3 percent year-on-year to $2.2 billion.  This was attributed to the 11.7 percent drop in cash remittances from land-based workers which offset the 6 percent increase in transfers from sea-based workers.

There are reports that a number of global correspondent banks have closed their service facilities on money service business , reflective of the increasing global trend to reduce correspondent banking relationships and focus more on home market. This may have partly affected remittances flows during the month.

The countries that registered the biggest declines in cash remittances in September were Saudi Arabia, followed by Kuwait, Qatar, and Australia.

For Saudi Arabia, the decline in remittances could partly be the result of the continued repatriation of OF workers under the Saudi Arabian amnesty program which started last March. On September 26  2017, the Saudi government extended the amnesty program anew and a total of 8,467 undocumented Filipinos already availed of the initial offer, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Cash remittances coming from the United States , Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom, Qatar, Kuwait, Germany and Hong Kong comprised  about  72 percent of total cash remittances from January to September. DMS