• OFW remittances to grow 4.7% in Nov

The growth in the amount of money sent by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is expected to slow down at 4.7 percent in November 2017 due to base effects, according to British banking giant HSBC.

In a report, HSBC Global Research said OFW remittances may rise 4.7 percent to $2.32 billion in November from $2.22 billion in the same month in 2016.

HSBC said the 4.7 percent growth was slower than the growth in remittances seen last October, which increased 8.38 percent to $2.28 billion from $2.1 billion in the previous year.

“This is partly driven by base effects, as remittances were unusually high in November 2016,” the bank said.

In November 2016, OFW remittances amounted to $2.22 billion, an 18 percent improvement from the $1.87 billion recorded in the same month in 2015.

“This also sets us up for potentially high remittances in December, since the growth in 2017 reported thus far has been below its pace from the previous year,” HSBC said.

“We expect 2017’s average remittance growth to at least match 2016’s pace (5.4 percent average per month), which calls for higher remittances at the end of the year,” it said.

According to BSP data, the growth rate of cash remittances in October 2017 was the fastest since personal remittances booked a double-digit growth of 10.7 percent in March last year.

From January to October last year, cash remittances increased 4.2 percent to $23.06 billion, compared to $22.12 billion in the same period in 2016.

Personal remittances – the sum of cash and non-cash items that flow through both formal or via electronic wire and informal channels such as money or goods carried across borders – went up 9.7 percent to $2.55 billion in October last year from $2.33 billion in October in 2016.

The growth in October was the fastest since personal remittances booked a double-digit growth of 11.2 percent in March 2017.

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