Money sent home by Filipinos working overseas climbed 8.7 percent in October to $2.5 billion from a year ago, the fastest growth in six months, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said Monday.
Espenilla said in a statement the top sources that contributed to the increase were the United States, Canada, and Taiwan.
The figure brought total cash remittances in the first 10 months to $23.8 billion, or 3.1 percent higher than $23.1 billion registered in the same period in 2017.
“Cash remittances from both land-based [$18.7 billion] and sea-based [$5 billion] workers grew by 2.8 percent and 4.2 percent year-on-year, respectively,” Espenilla said.
“By country source, 79 percent of the total cash remittances for the first 10 months of 2018 came from the US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom, Qatar, Canada, Germany, and Hong Kong,” Espenilla said.
Personal remittances, which include non-cash items, also grew 8 percent in October to $2.8 billion from $2.6 billion a year ago, also the fastest in six months.
Personal remittances in the first 10 months hit $26.5 billion, up 2.9 percent year-on-year.
Personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more rose 2.8 percent to $20.3 billion, while those from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year increased 4.2 percent to $5.5 billion.
Government economic managers expect remittances to grow 3 percent, taking into consideration the pace of global economic growth. In 2017, money sent home by overseas Filipinos reached a record $28.06 billion, up 4.3 percent from $26.90 billion in 2016.
The higher cash remittances in 2017 was supported by the increase in transfers from both land-based and sea-based workers by 4 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively.
(J.G. Rada, MT)
