Remittance growth target still achievable, says BSP

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is confident remittances from overseas Filipinos would still expand four percent this year after a slow start in the first four months.

“We continue to project cash remittances to grow by four percent. It is still four percent for this year,” BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said.

Latest data from the central bank showed cash remittances grew 3.1 percent to $8.67 billion from $8.41 billion in the same period last year.

Remittances from land-based Filipino workers grew 3.8 percent to $6.8 billion from January to April, while those from sea-based workers inched up 0.8 percent to $1.9 billion.

More than three-fourths of cash remittances came from the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan, Qatar, Hong Kong, Kuwait, and Germany.

“Starting the third quarter, we expect a significant improvement in the cash remittances coursed through banks.  We are still optimistic that this is going to proximate our growth forecast of four percent,” Guinigundo said.

Last year, cash remittances went up 4.6 percent to a record $25.77 billion from $24.63 billion in 2014 amid the strong demand for skilled Filipino workers abroad.

Jeff Ng, economist at Standard Chartered Bank, earlier expressed concern about the decline in remittances from the US amid the de-risking activities being undertaken by foreign banks.

“We are concerned about remittance growth this year, and expect the current account surplus to narrow to 2.5 percent of GDP from 2.9 percent in 2015,” he added.

He explained remittances from the US fell 29.1 percent in the first quarter of the year, offsetting the 50.1 percent growth in Asia as well as the 41.1 percent increase in the Middle East.