Remittances via banks at $13.8 B in H1

Remittances transferred through bank networks reached $13.8 billion as of end-June, up 4.7 percent compared to the same time last year of $13.19 billion, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) show.

Personal remittances – as opposed to cash remittances via banks – recorded a higher increase of 5.5 percent for the sixmonth period to $15.36 billion versus the previous year’s $14.57 billion. For June only, personal transfers went up by 6.8 percent year-on-year to $2.8 billion.

In a statement, BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. noted a 5.5 percent increase in personal remittances from land-based workers with long-term contracts and their side boosted remittances during the period. Land-based workers’ remittances contributed 77.3 percent of the total.

Both land-based and sea-based workers with short-term contracts accounted for 1.7 percent of the total increase in fund transfers. These personal remittances are the sum of an overseas Filipinos’ net compensation, personal transfers and capital transfers between households.

Espenilla said cash remittances for the month of June alone amounted to $2.47 billion, up 5.7 percent year-on-year. Landbased workers sent home $1.9 billion of this June total and $500 million from sea-based workers. These are 3.8 percent and 13.3 percent higher compared to June 2016.

Cash transfers were traced from the US, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Hong Kong and Singapore. The US and UAE accounted for 1.9 percentage points of the increase in cash remittances while Hong Kong and Singapore-based overseas Filipinos were responsible for 1.1 percentage points.

For the January-June remittances, specifically those transacted through the banks, 80 percent came from the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom, Qatar, Kuwait, Germany and Hong Kong. These data are, however, limited since as explained by the BSP, remittance centers all over the world transmit transfers through correspondent banks which are mostly in the US. These includes money couriers.

The BSP continues to assess that remittances remained “supported by stable demand” for skilled Filipinos overseas. Data from the Philippine Overseas Employement Administration show that for the first six months, deployed workers totaled 1,140,226. This is half or 50 percent of the total number deployed last year of 2,112,331.

For 2017, the BSP still expects remittances to grow by four percent. While it changed the external sector estimates for the year such as balance of payments and its components, it has not revised projection for fund transfers due to a relatively improved outlook for global growth.