Remittance increase slows in April

MONEY sent home by Filipinos abroad continued to rise in April from a year ago, but failed to sustain the double-digit growth logged a month earlier, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

In a statement, the central bank said cash remittances which overseas Filipinos coursed through banks jumped to $2.015 billion last April, 5.1% higher than the $1.918 billion recorded in the same month last year.

The increase, however, was slower than the 11.3% growth recorded last March — the fastest since December 2009’s 11.4% — when remittances rose to $2.101 billion from $1.888 billion a year ago.

“The steady demand for skilled Filipino manpower overseas provided support to the continued growth in remittance inflows,” the BSP said.

“In addition, the continued efforts of bank and non-bank remittance service providers to expand their international and domestic market coverage and introduce innovations in financial products and services continued to the sustained inflow of remittances,” the central bank added.

The April result brought the year-to-date tally to $7.807 billion, up 5.4% from a year earlier.

Cash remittances from land-based workers made up the bulk of the inflows in the first four months of the year at $5.9 billion, up 5.3%, while those from sea-borne workers went up 5.6% to $1.9 billion.

Major sources of cash remittances were the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Canada, and Hong Kong.

Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the central bank said a total of 310,727 Filipinos were deployed overseas at end-April.

About 33.8% of them were intended for service, production, and professional, technical and related workers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Taiwan, and Qatar, the central bank noted.

Remittances reached a record high of $ 24.348 billion last year, up 5.8% annually and topping the upwardly revised 5.5% goal set by the BSP in November last year.

The central bank said that cash remittances were equivalent to 8.5% of the country’s gross domestic product in 2014.

Cash remittances are expected to increase by 5% to $ 25.6 billion this year. —