DOLLAR REMITTANCES SURGED IN MAY, BSP SAYS

Dollars sent back to the country by expatriate Filipinos spiked in May—marking the fastest monthly increase in four and a half years—on the back of a surge in remittances from landbased workers abroad, according to the central bank.

In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said personal remittances from overseas Filipinos increased by 13.3 percent to $2.652 billion in May 2021 from $2.341 billion in May 2020.

This was the fastest monthly increase in dollars sent home by expatriates since the 18.5-percent increase recorded in November 2016.

This brought the cumulative remittances to $13.68 billion in the first five months of 2021, a 6.6-percent rise year-onyear from the $12.835 billion recorded in the comparable period in 2020.

Sea-based workers

In particular, personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more rose by 16.2 percent to $2.056 billion during the month of May from the $1.77 billion in May 2020.

Remittances from sea-based workers and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year also increased by 2.7 percent to $532 million from $519 million a year ago.

Likewise, cash remittances from expatriate Filipinos coursed through banks rose by 13.1 percent to $2.382 billion in May 2021 from $2.106 billion in the comparable month a year ago. This was due to the 16.2 percent and 2.7 percent increase in receipts from landbased workers to $1.894 billion from $1.631 billion and seabased workers to $488 million from $475 million, respectively.

Cash remittances

On a year-to-date basis, cash remittances in the January to May period reached $12.28.billion, 6.3 percent higher than the year-ago level of $11.554 billion.

The growth in cash remittances from the United States, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore and Canada contributed largely to the increase in remittances over this five-month period. Meanwhile, in terms of country sources, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances at 40.1 percent, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, South Korea, Qatar and Taiwan.

The combined remittances from these 10 countries accounted for 78.3 percent of total cash remittances.