Personal remittances up by 2.9% to $29.1 billion

CEBU, Philippines — Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos (OFs) in November 2018 grew by 2.4 percent year-on-year to US$2.6 billion. On a cumulative basis, personal remittances in January – November 2018 reached US$29.1 billion, 2.9 percent higher than the level posted a year ago, BSP Officer-in-Charge Maria Almasara Cyd N. Tuaño-Amador announced.

The growth in personal remittances during the first eleven months of 2018 was supported by remittance inflows from land-based OFs with work contracts of one year or more as well as remittances from sea-based and land-based OFs with work contracts of less than one year which increased by 2.8 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, cash remittances rose by 2.8 percent year-on-year to $2.3 billion in November 2018. The countries that contributed most to the increase for the month were Canada and the United States (US). For the first eleven months of 2018, cash remittances reached $26.1 billion, or a 3.1 percent increase compared to the $25.3 billion registered in the same period in 2017. Cash remittances from both land-based ($20.5 billion) and sea-based workers ($5.5 billion) recorded increments of 2.8 percent and 4.1 percent for January - November 2018, respectively.

The bulk of cash remittances for the first eleven months of 2018 came from the US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom, Qatar, Canada, Germany, and Hong Kong. Cash remittances from these countries accounted for almost 79 percent of total cash remittances.