Personal remittances register 10.8% growth

Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos (OFs) grew by 10.8 percent year-on-year in January 2018 to reach $2.7 billion, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. announced yesterday.

A statement posted on the BSP website said personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more aggregated $2.1 billion, higher by 8.4 percent than the level recorded in January 2017. Meanwhile, those from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year rose by 15.3 percent to $0.5 billion.

Cash remittances from OFs coursed through banks summed up to $2.4 billion in January, representing a 9.7 percent year-on-year growth. Remittances from both landbased ($1.9 billion) and seabased ($0.5 billion) workers increased by 8.4 percent and 15.3 percent, respectively.

By country source, the bulk of cash remittances came from the United States (US), United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Japan, Qatar, Canada, Kuwait, and Germany. The combined remittances from these countries accounted for more than 80 percent of total cash remittances.

The US, Canada, Singapore, and UAE were the major con-

tributors to the growth in cash remittances for the month.

Remittances from the United States grew by 14.3 percent, contributing 4.6 percentage points to the 9.7 percent overall growth.

Meanwhile, cash remittances from Canada, Singapore and UAE contributed a combined 4.6 percentage points to the total growth in cash remittances. /