HSBC: Remittance growth likely steady at 4.5% in March

MONEY sent home via banks by migrant Filipinos likely posted steady growth in March, banking giant HSBC said.

“We expect March remittances to rise 20.5 percent month- on-month, after two straight months of sequential contraction. This would lead to a rise of 4.5 percent year- on-year . . . ,” HSBC said.

February also saw a 4.5-percent expansion in cash remittances to $2.267

billion.

Growth was 10.7 percent in March last year.

February’s result was a three- month low for cash remittances, which make up the bulk of personal remittances that also hit a three- month low of $ 2.528 billion.

Official March remittance data is scheduled to be released on Tuesday by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

“Remittances this year,

so far, have largely been driven by inflows from Asia, Europe, and the Americas,” HSBC said.

Money sent home from the United States, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom, Japan, Qatar, Germany, Hong Kong and Canada comprised more than 80 percent of total cash remittances in for the first two months of the year.

HSBC noted that “inflows from the Middle East have contracted on a yearly basis since start of 2018, which may be partly due to the Duterte administration’s ban on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Kuwait,” it added.

Last Friday, President Rodrigo Duterte said he was open to lifting the ban after the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the Philippines and Kuwait on greater protection for OFWs.

Cash remittances totalled $ 31.3 billion in 2017, 5.3 percent higher compared to the prior year and also topping the Bangko Sentral’s 4.0- percent forecast.