Remittances likely grew 5.4% in May

MANILA, Philippines - Cash remittances could have grown by another 5.4 percent in May, UK-based investment bank Barclays said in a report.

“After a poor print in April, we expect remittances growth to have improved sequentially in May,” the bank said.

Money sent home by Filipinos abroad increased by 5.2 percent to $1.914 billion in April, latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed.

The central bank will release official May remittances data on Tuesday.

In the first four months of 2014, cash remittances went up 5.8 percent to $7.392 billion, driven by continued demand for Filipinos abroad.

Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed there were 319,888 approved job orders from January to April. Of the total job orders, one fourth were for service, production, and professional, technical, and related workers in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Kuwait, and Qatar.

At the same time, banks continued to expand their services abroad, supporting the remittances market.

The central bank said remittances in the four-month period were mostly sent from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.

Remittances play a big role in supporting domestic consumption, which remains to be the largest driver of the Philippine economy.

Last year, cash remittances surged 7.4 percent to $22.968 billion, the highest ever recorded by the central bank. Personal remittances, meanwhile, grew 8.6 percent to $25.351 billion.

The BSP expects cash remittances to grow by five percent this year from the 2013 figure.