Personal remittances rise to $2.6b in September

November 15, 2019

Personal remittances of Overseas Filipinos (OFs) totaled $2.6 billion in September, 6.3 percent higher than the $2.5 billion in the same period last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ( BSP) said Friday.

This brings personal remittances from January to September to $24.6 billion, or 3.9 percent higher than last year's level of $23.7 billion.

Growth in personal remittances during the nine-month period was driven by steady remittance inflows from land-based OF workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew to $18.8 billion from $18.2 billion in the same period last year. 

Remittance inflows from sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts also contributed higher at $5.3 billion this year compared to $4.9 billion a year ago.

Similarly, cash remittances coursed through banks by OF workers with work contracts of less than one year rose to $2.4 billion in September from $2.2 billion last year.

This drove cash remittances higher in the first nine months of this year to $22.2 billion from $21.3 billion recorded in the same period last year. 

By type of worker, cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers increased by 3.2 percent to $17.3 billion, and eight percent to $4.9 billion, respectively.

By country source, the US registered the highest share of total remittances during the period January to September at 37.5 percent. 

It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Japan, the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany and Kuwait. The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78.3 percent of total cash remittances during the period. DMS