OFW remittances up 18% in Nov

MANILA, Philippines - Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFW) grew to $2.4 billion in November last year, aided by steady job orders overseas.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday that cash sent by overseas-based Flipinos increased by 18.4 percent in November last year from a year ago. This brought total remittances for the first 11 months of 2016 to $26.9 billion, up 5.1 percent from the same period a year ago.

The bulk of remittances came from land-based workers with contracts for one year or more who sent back a total of $20.9 billion, up 7.8 percent from a year ago.

This made up for the 3.6 percent drop in remittances from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year amounting to $5.5 billion.

Cash remitted through banks rose 18.5 percent in November ahead of the holiday season to $2.2 billion.

At the end of the first 11 months,  remittances reached  $24.3 billion, representing a 5.2 percent increase from the 2015 level.

Cash remittances from land-based workers went up $1.4 billion, compensating for the P200 million decrease in sea-based workers’ remittance amid stiffer competition in the supply of seafarers particularly from East Asia and Eastern Euope.

“The improving global economic conditions particularly in the US may have contbutd to the overall growth in remittances,” the BSP said.

The bulk of cash remittances came from the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, UK, Japan, Qatar, Kuwait, Hong Kong, and Germany.  Combined remittances from these countries accounted for more than 80 percent of the total cash remittances from January to November last year.

Remittances from  overseas-based Filipinos largely fuel household consumption. They play a crucial role in the economy’s growth. Zinnia Dela Peña