Personal remittances for Jan-Nov reach $30.3B

PERSONAL remittances of Overseas Filipinos (OFs) in November 2019 grew by 2 percent year-on-year to $2.6 billion.

This brings personal remittances for the first 11 months of 2019 to $30.3 billion, or 4.1 percent higher than $29.1 billion recorded a year ago.

The steady growth in personal remittances during the first 11 months of 2019 drew support from the remittance inflows from land-based OF workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew by 3.6% to $23.1 billion from $22.3 billion in the same period last year. Likewise, the combined remittances of sea-based and land-based workers with short-term contracts rose by 7.3% to $6.5 billion during the period compared to $6 billion a year ago.

Similarly, cash remittances coursed through banks by OF workers with work contracts of less than one year grew by 2 percent to $2.4 billion in November 2019 from $2.3 billion in November 2018.

Further, cumulative cash remittances for the period January-November 2019 rose to

$27.2 billion, 4.4 percent higher than the $26.1 billion recorded last year.

By type of worker, cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers increased by 3.6 percent to US$21.3 billion, and 7.3 percent to $6 billion, respectively.

By country source, the US registered the highest share to total remittances during the period January to November 2019 at 37.7 percent. It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Japan, United Arab Emirates, the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany, and Qatar. The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78.4 percent of total cash remittances during the period.