Remittances hit 1-year low in Sept

MONEY sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) fell to a oneyear low in September, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ( BSP) reported on Thursday.

Personal remittances — comprising OFWs’ net compensation, personal transfers whether in the form of cash or in kind, and capital transfers between households — totalled $ 2.490 billion, 2 percent higher than the $ 2.442 billion posted a year earlier but 9.8 percent lower

compared to the $ 2.760 billion booked in the prior month.

It was also the lowest since September 2017.

The result brought year- to- date remittances to $ 23.713 billion, 2.4 percent higher than the $ 23.164 billion registered in the comparable 2017 period.

“The growth in personal remittances during the first nine months of 2018 was supported by remittance inflows from landbased workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew by 2.2 percent year- on- year,” Bangko Sentral officer- incharge Maria Almasara Cyn Tuaño- Amador said in a statement.

“Similarly, the growth in personal remittances was complemented by remittances from sea- and landbased workers with contracts of less than one year, which rose by 3.5 percent year- on-year,” she added.

Cash remittances, which only count money coursed through banks, rose by 2.3 percent to $ 2.237 billion