MANILA, Philippines - Growth in overseas Filipino workers’ remittances decelerated to a six-year low in January, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported yesterday.
Money sent home by Filipinos living and working abroad went up by a paltry 0.5 percent to $1.814 billion in January from $1.804 billion in the same period last year. This was the slowest pace of growth since the 0.1 percent expansion in January 2009.
Analysts said last year’s figure included typhoon Yolanda-related remittances after the calamity devastated the country in late 2013.
The central bank said cash remittances from land-based workers abroad amounted to $1.4 billion, while those from sea-based workers amounted to $500 million.
Most of the funds were sent from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Canada.
Together with non-cash items, personal remittances went up by just 0.2 percent to $2.011 billion in January from $2.007 billion in the same month last year.
“Continued demand for skilled Filipino manpower contributed to the steady inflow of remittances,” the BSP said.
Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the central bank said there were 77,009 job orders in January. About a third of these jobs were intended for service, production, and professional, technical and related work in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates, the BSP said.
“Moreover, the continued efforts of bank and non-bank remittance service providers to expand their international and domestic market coverage through their network of remittance business partners worldwide provide support to steady remittance flows,” the central bank said.
Personal remittances last year rose 6.2 percent to a record high of $26.924 billion from $25.351 billion in 2013. Cash remittances alone also went up 5.8 percent to a fresh peak of $24.308 billion, surpassing the BSP’s 5.5-percent assumption for the period.
Remittances support domestic consumption, the main driver of the Philippine economy. Last year, cash remittances accounted for 8.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.