Dec. cash remittances at record high, but 2018 growth slowest on record

CASH sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFW) surged to an all-time high in December and clocked in full-year growth that outpaced the central bank’s growth forecast even as it was the slowest annual increase on record, according to the data which the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released on Friday. Cash remittances reached $2.849 billion that month, up 3.9% from the $2.741 billion inflows recorded in December 2017, spurring full-year inflows up 3.1% to $28.943 billion from 2017’s $28.060 a little past the BSP’s three-percent growth projection.